Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Indeed Apoc. I agree.

I posted a few new versions today. Inkscape (or my computer), is starting to give me problems. The program is really chugging, taking much longer to perform even the simplest task. With the number of nodes and objects in the file I think I am reaching the limit of the programs ability to cope. Crashes are becoming more frequent. It took all day to get the little that I did done. Adobe Illustrator would have been my program of choice, but not at the monthly rate they are charging.

Anyway, I have made some modifications to the Djinn Lands and the Great Desert. They are all modular. They can be mixed and matched by hiding and adding various layers. I posted multiple new versions on my blog. They are merely examples of what can be displayed.

Specifically:

Landtear (aka The Forbidden Lands) can now appear in the Great Desert. This fits since that area was the epicenter of the Banestorm.

The Burning Lands (hot desert badlands) can appear along the southern border of the Great Desert or in the center.

A large lake, a major river and appropriate surrounding terrain has been added (I need to do the islands on this lake yet) in the former area of the Landtear. This humid zone could be the home of African tribes, jungle dwellers or a Lost Civilization.

If none of these biomes appeal to you, that area can be per canon: arid grasslands, with some oasis and a few small lakes.

Cactus Forests added near the Great Desert boundaries. Like the Hundred Acre Wood...but prickly.

The city states along the coast can be removed, with the area becoming savannas & grasslands, per canon.

Wadis (dry canyon riverbeds (which flood during the rainy seasons, although some can have flowing water all year) added throughout the region. These would be represented as standard rivers if you wish.

The northern Djinn Lands (near the Kashk River) contains a much smaller version of the radioactive "Glowing Hills", contaminated with mutagenetic dust and unknown energies, with the epicenter located on the ruins of Alliance Base Indigo III.

Anyway, I would appreciate some feedback. Which version (if any), do you prefer? Which is the best fit? The main hick-up for me is that damn area in the north of the Djinn Lands, between the desert and the Fence of God. Landtear, humid region with a large lake, or savanna?

My intention is to make every region of Ytarria interesting, and somewhat unique.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

How about an African-style toxic alkali lake filled with exotic creatures?

It would explain why there's only a small river flowing into it and why it doesn't drain to the sea. Since it's close to a small mountain chain there could easily be geothermal activity as well, just like around Kenya's Lake Natron.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I like that idea. A lake feels more organic.

I have found a fix for my lag issue. It is time consuming but it will alleviate some of my issues. (I hope)

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

From the Banestorm Designer Notes: "The other Big Mystical Mystery which we resolved was that of the expansion of the Blackwoods..."

But did they really "resolve" anything? The text on 99 only says that "something" has appeared in the Blackwoods, and while that thing is a described as a slime-oozing, fungus-infested tree, I sure don't see anything resembling a "resolution."

So, I'm curious, what does this thread think of the Blackwoods -- and how fast are they expanding?

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

My guess would be as much as you want. That was 20 years ago. It all depends on the timeline you want to work in I guess. Personally, I would expand it as much as you wanted. There is little impact map-wise. The situation is very Cthulhu-like, with resonates with me. I always assumed that the magic power of Yrth came from whatever fell in the Ring Islands, and that was likely more than just a meteorite. An entombed alien god, spacecraft with artificial singularity drive, the entombed remains & spirits of a dead race...or maybe just a big space rock. Whatever it was, it is waking up and not in the best of moods.

I both love and hate hex maps. Hexes are useful for gauging distance, but for the most part, travel happened on waterways, roads, paths and game trails. People did not pack up and go exploring in some random direction without local guides. Even then it was done on established routes. No one just walked off into the woods in the hopes of finding something interesting.

What this means is that most of the hexes on the map, the vast majority of it, will remain unused, pointless filler. Eye-candy at most, especially at the game table during a session. The maps I use at a table are Point-Crawl maps.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Somebody had to be the first! Might as well be the victims...I mean party.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Sure they did. Since antiquity hunters have followed animal herds. Even very primitive hunters and gatherers will make their way along previously unexplored riverbanks or coastlines, "exploring" only the territory that was in their immediate line of sight. Pastoralists would have been constantly scouting for new pastures and water sources for their herds.

Later explorers deliberately traveled in a given direction for a given number of miles/days to see what was there, prove a theory, map the territory or "discover" new civilizations to interact with. Survival skill and Navigation the basic skills; after that choose one or more of Animal Handling, Anthropology, Biology, Geology, Mathematics/TL (Surveying), Merchant, Paleontology, Prospecting, Tactics, Theology or weapon skills depending on the explorer's intentions.

Also, for a map that's 20 miles to the hex, you have to assume that there are multiple game trails, streams, etc. which allow explorers to penetrate the area or paths or roads between settlements.

Most of the map will be unused unless you're playing GURPS Civilization, but a fully populated map gives both the GM and players options and ideas of where to go and what to do. The GM can also easily invent a reason for explorers to visit a random hex, from rumors of a new threat or source of riches to badly failed Teleportation Other spell.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Without the aid of modern navigation tools overland travel through trackless forest (to say nothing of mountains) is both exhausting and disorienting. I do a lot of camping in northern Ontario you would do well to even penetrate the foliage a few hundred meters. Anyway, I am glad I do not have to live like those folks (basically just surviving year to year...with no time for GURPS).

24 miles per hex is certainly a huge area. The largest hex scale I would consider using on a map. It is useful for calculating travel times since that is the longest distance a man or beast typically travels in a day in good terrain (it could be more or less, but I use that number to keep things simple for myself).

Yes there would be countless streams, trails and paths for sure. There is no reasonable way to map that; every hex will be full of stuff. I only marked the major trails that get regular use or which made sense.

The map has over 8500 objects on it right now (yes that is a lot). I have tried a few fixes and nothing seems to be making my life easier in regards to adding/editing additional features.

If I was actually playing RPGs I would have used Adobe Illustrator for this particular project. It handles larger files like this one easily. I will carry on for as long as I can though.

Incarnate is good program to consider for creating things out of whole cloth and those maps are done on a net server so anyone can access them or download and change them if they so desire.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Cthulhu be praised!

After some detailed investigation I found the object causing problem on my map and deleted it.

Everything is back to normal, with Inkscape working like a charm.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Fhtagn! Fhtagn! Fhtagn!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Humble bundle has a map making software bundle currently.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

It´s a good deal and the software has many useful functions, but beware Campaign carthographer needs a lot of skill and experience to be useful.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Link to the bundle? I searched briefly but couldn't find it.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Look under Humble Bundle Maps Bonanza, I hope it´s ok to post the link too.

https://www.humblebundle.com/softwar...softwarebundle

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Not wanting to let this thread disappear, I am compelled to ask if any more updates have been made to the map. I usually check here to see because I can’t always tell if the blog post has been updated. Thanks!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

The disappearance problem is solved. There's a link to this thread in the "Index to threads with lasting value" thread in the GURPS Resources sub-forum.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Sorry gents. I was 7 days a week, 12 hour shifts for three weeks now, leaving little time for cartography.

Anyway, I have been pondering what to add next. There are a few options:

Additional Named Locations (peaks, valleys, waterfalls, minor river names, ect)
Village Names
Island Development (there are many)
Castles / Towers
Major Monstrous Lairs
Detailing the Djinn & Orclands Lands
General Background Development

For me at least, all I need for a creative spark is a few sentences or two, perhaps a paragraph, on an area. I do not want to get sucked into too much detail. I will start this and post this via a PDF or some other means on a new blog post.

Ideas are welcome.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I maintain that there should be a truly impressive waterfall on the Yvostek River, akin to Victoria or Niagara Falls. It should be located south of the town of Yurr'Zon and north of the canal.

The canal will also be a mighty feat of engineering, equivalent to the Erie Canal or the ancient Chinese grand canals. There will be locks to raise or lower boats every 2-20 miles, based on terrain slope, possibly with impressive multi-lock structures near the ends of the canals to lift barges over or down escarpments. If you like this idea, lots of good pictures here.

For names, it's not unreasonable to name towns, rivers, etc. after features from the original settlers' home countries, possibly tacking the equivalent of "New" in front of the name. (e.g., Neu Rhein, Nova Salamanca). Places might also be named for early heroes or explorers (e.g., Bjornholm, Cuthbert's Peak) or religious figures (e.g., Marienbad, Jabal al Fatima, Odinsfjord). That makes place names somewhat easy, since you just need a map of the inhabitants' original country or a list of saint's names/culturally-appropriate names.

There will be fortifications at any strategic location on the map - along rivers and trade routes, near national or regional borders, etc. Castles in some cases, military camps or watchtowers in others. Some might be ancient ruins, having served their purpose in the distant past. Don't forget walls and dikes like Offa's Dyke, Hadrian's Wall or the Great Wall of China (easy to do with Create Earth spells) along frontier areas to discourage monsters and/or barbarians. All these things seem particularly appropriate in Megalos with its large population, large military and weaponized mages.

The same idea holds for major monster lairs. One man's monster lair is another orc's embattled border outpost. Don't be too specific about details, however. For example, the "lair" of a major dragon might be an area hundreds of miles in diameter.

Finally, if you don't have a background in geography, take a quick look at the topics of cultural and economic geography for further inspiration.

Assume that the big cities marked on the map will be surrounded by smaller cities or towns, approximately 1-2 per 24 mile hex, out to a distance of 50-100 miles, with settlement patterns being channeled along rivers, trade routes, valleys, and coasts. Wherever traders must shift transportation modes (e.g., boat to caravan, or river barge to seagoing ship) or bypass some obstacle there will be some type of settlement.

Towns and smaller cities in relatively settled areas will be surrounded by hamlets or small towns every 5-20 miles with roads of varying quality linking them. Small settlements within half a day's to a full day's walk, larger settlements separated by 2-5 days travel time, really big settlements every 200-500 mi. serving an entire region and with road, river, and seaport networks sufficient to support a big population.

There should be a settlement at any point where a river meets the sea or where a trade route meets a major mountain range or a major desert. If there isn't a settlement, there might be a very good reason for it (e.g., ruined former settlement, monster lair, residual Banestorm effects, etc.)

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I earlier mentioned I'd like to see a location strewn with a ridiculous number of lakes – like Minnesota, except that that's still nothing compared to a bit farther north in Canada.

It's by no means an important feature, so I wouldn't worry about it much. But for your amusement, here's a map I later came across: https://i.redd.it/k27xjls80mw21.jpg

It's a map of the world's lakes, and Canada is... insane. Half the country is merely rich in lakes. The other half looks like more lake than land.

Some area like that on Ytarria, even far smaller in scale, would mean lots of Boating in summer and Skiing in winter on overland journeys.

Again, not a particularly important or fascinating feature, but I thought your mapmaker sensibilities might find that map interesting.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Thanks Tbone/Pursiviant. That gives me something to work on this weekend. Like all those ideas.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I was thinking about the towns/villages/hamlets as well, particularly in Cardiel and al-Wazif.

I also think it would be fun to include some "magic did this" features...like a jungle in the middle of a small forest or something totally bizarre like a floating inverted mountain top...

I also think it would be worth taking a good hard look at Cardiel and seeing if there are any places you could fit some woodlands. I find it hard to believe that there are *no* significant woodlands in a country that side, but I admit I haven't been to Europe and could be biased living in the Pacific Northwest.

But the idea is to look for places on the map using the distances mentioned upthread to find areas that should be VERY sparsely populated (and as we've already discussed, there should be a lot of them), which could be home to monster lairs, bandit camps, and wannabe lords.

But...if I'm truly honest...the thing I would love THE MOST is a map that added borders for the various duchies, counties, earldoms, and baronies in the various countries that have those. That would be so useful!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Thinking more about canals and other human modifications to the environment.

1) Henges and similar structures. They could be left over from before the Banestorm or they might have been constructed by "barbarians" somehow plucked by the Banestorm from Iron or Bronze Age Europe. Add weird, powerful magical effects to taste.

(The idea of one Banestorm that affected all of time and space for a certain distance backwards in time from the Middle Ages as well as forward from it allows for all sorts of fun stuff for the GM. Celts, Romans, Ancient Greeks, Ancient Egyptians, Mayans, Ancient Near Eastern civilizations.)

2) Any place you've got a major peninsula or isthmus with a narrow point to it, it's highly likely that you'll get some means of transporting small coastal vessels overland (later you get canals, but that's a lot of Shape Earth spells). For example, the Ancient Greeks had a portage across the Isthmus of Corinth, while the Ancient Egyptians had a portage from Gaza to the Red Sea.

One obvious place for such a portage/canal would be the neck of the Sahud Peninsula, starting just north of the Tower of the Eyes of Heaven at Kinkaku and going overland to Kaga. That allows coastal ships from Southern Sahud to go directly to the north coast of the Sahud Peninsula using the relatively sheltered waters of the Koriryu No Umi rather than having to brave potentially treacherous currents going around the peninsula.

Likewise, there should be a canal/portage system going from Quatredec up the River Baran to its highest navigable point, then overland to the unnamed Megalan settlement on the north coast, possibly paralleling the existing trade route. (Its existence would also explain the presence of the Emperor's Wall and the fights over the isthmus. It's not just territory, it's control of trade routes.)

3) Post roads, watchtowers, tollgates, and coaching inns. Especially in Megalos, you're likely to have Roman-style military and courier roads. They might also be open to civilian use as toll roads. Where you have toll roads, you also have tollgates which also act as police stations and customs enforcement.

Watchtowers, aided with things like powerful Continual Light spells and Hawk Vision magic items might be present along all Yttarian borders both as border patrol and military communication relays akin to 19th c. heliographs.

Coaching inns, possibly subsidized act as places for couriers and coachmen to swap out tired horses and for passengers to get food and rest. They'll be present at about 5-10 mi. intervals along any well-kept toll road.

Similar buildings exist for canals, with lockkeepers' houses or weigh stations present at every lock. Inns, boat building and repair shops, and similar services will spring up nearby. There will also be "basins" every 20-50 miles along a canal where boats can turn around or be docked when they're not in use. Feeder canals - diverted from local streams and rivers - often replenish canal water at these points. Since boats are often laid up for winter in basins, there will be at least one canal boat repair and building business as well as related businesses catering to boatmen and passengers.

These ideas might be to "fine-grained" for a 24-mi. hex map, but they might be helpful in laying out minor settlements along major roads/canals.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Absolutely. Magical changes might be more subtle, too, like areas of weird vegetation or smaller versions of improbable terrain like the acid swamp in Caithness.

Areas of weird terrain might also be magically aspected, affecting otherwise normal flora and fauna in strange ways (e.g., a Darkness-aspected forest where the shadows are exceptionally deep per the Gloom enchantment and where the local animals are permanently affected by Blur or Hide enchantments.)

Assuming a west-to-east jet stream, Al-Haz, Al-Wazif and, to a lesser extent, Cardiel will be rain-shadowed by the Fence of God (c.f., Eastern Oregon/Washington State being rain-shadowed by the Cascade Ranges). Storms, even cyclones, coming up from the Erythraean Sea might provide lots of seasonal water, however, explaining the existence of the two large river basins in the area.

My "head canon" for the south coast of Al-Haz, et al, is a pre-industrial version of the Texas coast, with salt marshes and mangrove swamps along the coast and seasonal open forests intermingled with prairie. (Transported Comanches turned Islamic ghazi would be truly frightening.)

Cardiel clearly has a Pre-Reconquista Spanish vibe, which could be reinforced by making Cardiel's terrain look a lot like the Iberian Peninsula. Towards the center of the country you get scattered upland forests of cork oaks, possibly managed as woodlots and livestock foraging areas around settled areas. The rest of the area is likely to be arid grasslands, possibly making it a place to drop in some Argentinian pampas-themed goodness.

On the east coast, especially around the Seamist Mountains, you get classic Mediterranean climate, olive and citrus groves, vineyards and better watered forests. Add in your choice of medieval Byzantine, Greek, Moorish, Sicilian, or Spanish cultures, all living in near idyllic climatic conditions, and all ready to turn the knives they were previously using on each other on unwelcome visitors.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

FWIW my preference would be for cities and towns. Things that are obvious adventure locations would be more useful in my mind if they were just labeled as ‘ruins of Langford’ or ‘Old Crick’s Domain’ or Hunting grounds of Kizavexius’ unless they come in a removable layer.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

So many ideas. I need to get my game on.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Has the game, in fact, been turned back on? Super curious to see if you've gotten any inspiration from the ideas above!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I am trying to get motivated. Still been working crazy hours. I am mainly a miniature painter and that often distracts me from RPG work (having zero players also does not help).

This is not a forgotten project though.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Hope you are doing well, darebear! Curious if you've had any inspiration or time yet or if you are on any of the GURPSy Discord servers! Thanks!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Merry Christmas everyone. I am going to try to continue this project over the new year after a long break. I am open to suggestions. Not sure where to start at this point. I tend to get caught up in ideas from a million other sources, trying to create that "Perfect Campaign World".

I will review the ideas above and see what I can come up with. Lots of good ones there. I have some ideas for the naming of ruins and I will be adding some waterfalls and other major terrain features as suggested above.

I am not 100% happy with Zarak. I am thinking of making that region one large mountainous region vs breaking it up into smaller chains with their associated valleys. Thoughts? Yes, no?

The Southern Djinn lands might be an excellent location for an African society, with a mix of Muslim and older African Tribal religious cultures. The Djinn of course could be anything you want (my personal vision has always been non-human sorcerer-kings from another dimension). Ruling over the local human inhabitants they worship their own pantheon of strange alien gods while engaging in their own bizarre magical research.

Lastly, I am curious if anyone has thoughts on the Pre-Banestorm world. There is almost no information on that and it always left me, well a little flat. I prefer my campaign worlds, "ancient"...think Dying Earth, where people are living amongst the past glories and ruins of long dead and unknowable civilizations. Ytarria always felt like it was born with no important past to speak of prior to the Banestorm. Most traditional fantasy games have players exploring ruins and other picking over the remnants of past human and non-human civilizations. This feature is particularly absent from the way that Ytarria has always been presented.

My thought was to use the Reality Quake trope: the Banestorm caused massive disruptions in the space-time continuum. Humans and non-humans from both the past and the far future could have been deposited across Yrths Pre-Banestorm timeline, allowing for the addition or features which are "out of place....ruins, monoliths, ect.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Zarak covers a lot of ground, it's got several rivers that originate in the mountains and its northern border is defined by the ocean, so it will need more than just mountainous terrain.

Given its proximity to Sahud, perhaps go for a Himalayan-inspired theme.

That means means multiple ranges of high mountains with narrow valleys in between, hanging valleys and deep river gorges with fast-flowing rivers and lots of glaciers.

Add humans of Tibetan origin living in the uplands between Sahud and Zarak. They herd animals, grow crops and do the other "above ground" jobs that dwarves hate doing. Maybe add Yeti as a secret species or monster.

If there are on-shore currents or weather patterns that hit the continent from the northwest, Zarak is going to get a lot of snow in its northern parts. That means extensive glaciation and lots of seasonal snow melt which feeds the rivers. Given their short run from the mountains to the sea, the rivers will be narrow, fast-flowing, rocky and treacherous until just before the coasts.

Coastal areas might look like British Columbia or similar Northern Pacific coastal terrain.

The Djinn Lands are "GM's choice" of culture, with communities of any species or origin working to support a given Djinni's lifestyle and territorial ambitions. African, Amerindian (North, Central or South American) or even Australian Aborigine are all possible. Cultures that are way out of their time another possibility, with Romans, Babylonians or U.S. Western frontier settlements (with or without guns, the Djinn don't care about The Secret).

As another idea, the Djinn Lands are great places for artifacts out of time or in the wrong place. For example, stranded steam locomotives and train cars, crashed airplanes or huge ships stranded in the desert. They were all transported from Earth, or elsewhere, and the fate of their occupants is unknown.

For ancient cultures from the dawn of time, you can't go wrong with evolved dinosaurs or devolved subterranean humanoids. Dark elves could have branched off into Deep Elves who live far below the surface in underground settlements. If you want Dark Elves and scary slimy things, maybe rip off the AD&D idea of the Underdark with Drow, Aboleth, Beholders and other copyrighted monsters.

Really ancient cultures are also a way of introducing one-off high-tech or ultratech devices into the game, assuming that a culture advanced to TL9 or higher, with laser pistols and spaceships, before regressing or dying out due to some cataclysm.

In any case, the whole appeal of an "ancient earth" is its mysteries. That's hard to do on a map. Instead, tease the players with inscriptions in unknown languages on plates made of strange metal and massive incredibly weathered statues carved out of mountain tops. The full truth can only be learned via extensive magical investigation.

You also have to make the really old stuff the really good stuff. Ancient enchantments from millions of years ago are incredibly powerful, if only because the toughest and most useful items survive for so long. Ancient weapons cleave through ordinary steel as if it was warm butter. Ancient artifacts might also be how the Dark Elves blew themselves up, and they might be on the lookout for another ancient item that can reverse history.

On the map, that means highlighting locations of massive and inexplicable things. A city designed for non-humans that was once on land and then sunk beneath the ocean. The ruins of some massive building, made from unidentifiable materials, in the middle of the desert. A perfectly straight and level road which cuts through the surrounding terrain, with perfectly smooth cuts through rock, which ends when it reaches a solid rock face. Force domes in wilderness areas that can't be penetrated and which occasionally produce "monsters" which terrorize the locals.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Thanks for the inspiration.

I will have to give the mountains some thought. At 24 miles per hex there is really only so much that I can show. That one hex could easily have multiple types of terrain, along with many rivers, lakes and minor rivers. Since a single hex is about 500 square miles I struggle with the level of detail to actually show. I do refer to various online hex map sources for inspiration, particularly the D&D Mystara line. For fantasy gaming Ytarria is a huge continent, far bigger than someone actually needs in most cases IMO. Mapping it even at this high level has been daunting (and I tend to overthink things at the best of times).

My take on Zarak is the mountain chains should flow horizontally rather than vertically (the opposite of the Fence of God chain). I could get away with one large central mountainous area running horizontally, but perhaps in the center of Zarak, north of Caithness there could be a large Intermontane plateau. This could be the home of whatever a DM/GM desires, a hard to reach area like the Plateau of Leng. It would give a reason to travel to central Zarak (which has no Dwarf cities) and would make it more interesting than just another mountainous area.

Speaking of cartography, the map uses contour lines to delineate terrain ruggedness (light brown for hills, dark brown for mountains and other hard going areas). I wanted to avoid placing icons in every hex to note the specific nature of the hex. The black icons indicate the high mountains which are generally impassable areas. I still need to add mountain passes to those areas, or I could just move those icons entirely. They likely cause more confusion than anything else.

Perhaps the map would be better served with only one topography color for ruggedness (light brown for the mountainous foothills), with mountain icons to indicate the actual mountain chain? It would make editing and changing map much easier since I would not be dealing with two contour layer colors, at the cost of aesthetics.

I added an older version of Ytarria today on my blog (the last picture), with more "bulky" mountain contour lines for Zarak and the Fence of God. Let me know what you think: was this a better version? My gut tells me the older version was/is better. The contour lines have a higher opacity level as well (i.e they are darker than the current version).

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I have so many ideas to share, but no time right this minute. I'm super excited you are back and to the extent that encouragement helps, consider yourself encouraged!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Thanks Apoc. I have started to add location names to forests, towers, hamlets and other locations. There is a lot. I do have some write-ups for these areas. One day I will summarize those in a blog post. Sometimes a just a simple name can inspire the imagination.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

A recent Monsters and Manuals blog post touched on that, offering some nicely colorful real-world names (with more in comments). Those are great in game worlds - the kinds of names that make PCs ask locals "Why is this place called that?" A question that the locals love to answer with a story (or several confusingly different stories...)

Another thing that I tried to work into my own world-creation in the past is names for historical regions – not current political entities, not clearly-defined physical features, but regions by some other arbitrary definitions (even if loose and inconsistent definitions). In our world: Kashmir. The Levant. Dixie. The Basque Region. A zillion others. Names that can hold more meaning for people than whatever barony or country name rulers have drawn on their maps.

These are great as no-man's regions contested by rival nations (something maybe lacking in Banestorm?), sources of independence movements, long-lost ancestral homelands that cross national boundaries, extents of past empires, or just legendary names that evoke past glories or horrors or what have you...

But, I know that dropping these onto the Banestorm map would mean deep delves into Yttaria history and cultures and societies, far beyond the calling of a cartography project. So no expectations there!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I will have to check that out Tbone.

Honestly, I have more than a few complaints about Ytarria. The first one being the population level vs the campaign area. The civilized human dominated continental area is roughly 3 million square miles (basically the same area as the continental USA..I didnt count the Great Forests, major mountain chains, ect). Total human population is 36 million, making it 12 per square mile overall. Megalos is 12 per square mile, Caithness is 7. This is quite honestly, absurd. You could comfortably fit all of the human cultures of Ytarria in the area of al-Haz, al-Wazif and Cardiel, with room to spare. In the book however, the author describes many of the areas as well-settled and peaceful...eastern Megalos does not have and wild animals more dangerous than rabbits! Another absurdity. If a proper map had been done for the setting to begin with then perhaps someone could have done a reality check on the whole setting. As it stands, there is simply no way to reconcile the size of the map with material described in the book. Most humans for thousands of years never travelled more than 10 miles from their home. Each hex is 24 miles, so most people never leave their hex. Something to think about when you look at the map.

If I were to re-write it, I would take the square miles of the various areas and multiple them from between 40-60. Ytarria would have roughly 120-150 million civilized inhabitants, spread out over the various regions. This is not unreasonable with 1000 years of growth, magic to aid society and population additions from further Banestorm activity. There would still be lots of areas for wilderness exploration.

As an example:
Megalos
Land Area: 1.2 million square miles (roughly, with 480,000 square miles of that being arable land, 40%)
Population: 60 million people
Urban Population: 4.8 million (8%)
Rural Population 55.2 million
Hexes under Cultivation: 862 (rural population x 2 = acres farmed. 640 acres per square mile, 500 square miles per hex, roughly 40% of each hex is arable, equaling to 200 square miles of farmland available per 24 mile hex on average. This equates to 430000 square miles of farmland being utilized)

At this level of population I would consider Megalos well settled, with well developed farms, pastures and settlements. Well over half of Megalos would still be considered wild, or unusable for human use (forests, swamps, rivers, bogs, rocky areas, hills, ect). In this scenario Megalos would be far more likely to expand, since they are already nearing the full use of their arable land (I am being generous at 40%, it is likely far less since the Blackwoods and the far Western areas are not conducive to farming). Indeed, several areas of Megalos could suffer periodic famines, even with fishing and livestock to supplement themselves. They would likely be big importers of grain from Cardiel. There would likely be unrest in the outer regions of the Empire, which would be complicated by the indifference of the Emperor to the whole situation. With this simple modification the whole situation of Megalos is changed. It becomes a desperate Empire that finds itself overpopulated and unable to feed its growing citizens. Conquest of foreign lands becomes imperative. This is hindered by the Legion's poor leadership, lackluster combat ability and the increasing need to put down potential rebellions at home.

It is conceivable that time flows differently in Yrth's universe, or simply extend the timeline a couple of hundred years to accommodate for the increased population growth. I have my own ideas on how reality works on Yrth, especially when it comes to "cause and effect", "chemical reactions", "gravity", ect. On my Yrth scientific progress is not hindered by Wizards or Secret Societies; it is hindered by the fact that due to the Banestorm all manner of physical laws are now conditional, temporary and or special-cased. There is little point in scientific research in such a situation. For example, Wizards do not need to keep the knowledge of firearms secret since the chemical reaction itself is either unstable or inert in the first place. Perhaps there are pockets of Ytarria where high technology will function, but those special case situations (similar to mana levels).



I did print out the current map at work today, on our color laser printer and tiled it on nine 11x17 sheets. Looks very good actually, even at a low output JGP resolution from Inkscape. I posted a picture of that on my blog for those who are interested. If you convert the map image to a PDF you can print out selected regions easily enough in any PDF program. Very usable at a gaming table.

Anyway, today I am doing some editing. All of the villages on the map are named now. I will be adding wizard towers, keeps and other adventure points of interest this weekend. Hopefully next week I will have an update to post.

I highly suggest picking up Worlds Without Number by Kevin Crawford. It is FREE and has a wealth of information on how to build a world, down to adventure sites. It is packed with useful tables for generating anything a DM might need. This information is game system neutral and very useful for any DM/GM. The rules for his system are also very good.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

My bad; I forgot to link to the Monsters and Manuals post I referenced. It's now fixed up above.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I have updated my blog post and the maps therein. It is still an endless WIP project.

More villages added.
All of the settlements, towers and castles are named (I think anyway).
Many landmarks still need naming though. Hopefully this week.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Thanks! This is much appreciated.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

My pleasure. Working on the topography names at the moment. I will post a separate blog entry with the names of each and the special features of that terrain (flora types, fauna, special features, ect).

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

How about the non-human population? Does that make any difference?

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.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Never read Orcslayer. Appreciated.

Thanks Blind. My guess is those rivers are fed by underwater springs or small lakes which are not indicated on the map. I could add those of course. I will play around with the swamp tonight and see what works, likely moving the eastern border back a bit, with the vacated area being represented by dry plains and scrubland before it turns into desert. The swamp area is just a rough draft from last night. I did some research and there are cases of wetlands bordering deserts, specifically in Iraq and Egypt.

https://theconversation.com/paradox-...ion%20emerged.

The larger forests need work of course. They encompass a huge area and the task of filling them is daunting. Additional lakes and waterfalls are on the list of things to add. Perhaps some magical terrain too in the denser locations. My intention for both Forests was to add an Elven civilization to both. I try to not add too many icons to area terrain zones (other than mountains) since I dont want it too cluttered up.

The Great Forest has some Elven towns/villages, along with Gnomes, Halflings and Dwarves. I have considered adding a few Orc tribes to the area as well...as a source of conflict.

The Blackwoods are a perfect location for a Dark Elf civilization. If anyone has read the D&D Mystara Gazetteer "The Shadow Elves" for the BECMI line then you will know where I will be going with them. I "may" extend the Blackwoods border a hex or two to the east and west, making it bit bigger. This would also be a source of concern for Megalos since it could eventually cut off the land route to the west. The Blackwood could use some swamps, bogs and maybe a low mountain or two. I envision the Blackwoods as the perfect place for Dark Fantasy and a possible springboard for the invasion of Megalos by the Elves and their inhuman allies from The Deep.

The Orclands forests do have villages in them, but I turned off that layer for the time being. The Yazak Steppes (any everything north of that) is occupied by a Mongolian/Hyrkanian (from Conan) tribes along with tribes similar to American Natives. Their tribal areas are sort of mapped out but I need to finalize them more. I was intending that area to be two separate human tribal groups, but I may combine them into one. Not sure yet.

The map can always use more minor rivers and lakes. I tend to add those as I see fit. The Nomad Lands and northern Megalos call out to me constantly for additional water features. I still have a million forests and hill regions to name. I have the names, I just need to enter them on the map.

Truthfully, every hex would have innumerable small streams and minor rivers along with ponds and lakes of various sizes. It would be impossible to accurately map them all.

I do have icons for farmland, to delineate cultivated areas with significant rural population. If those were displayed folks would see just how empty much of the nations are.

I read this somewhere for population density.

1 person/3-5 square miles for hunter/gatherers
1 person/square mile for pastoralists and their animals
10 people/square mile for horticulturalists
20 people/square mile for primitive agriculture
30-40 people/square mile for more sophisticated but still not modern agriculture
50-100/square mile, possibly more in and around a significant city.

Here is another useful blog post.
https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2017/...-in-brief.html

To keep it simple, the author uses the following:
Cities/Walled Towns: One per 4,000 square miles.
Castles: One per 400 square miles.
Villages: One per 40 square miles.

Cities: 10,000-60,000 people.
Towns: 1,000-6,000 people.
Villages: 100-600 people.
(looks likes a series of d6 rolls to me)

Caithness currently has 62 settlements and Megalos has 149. My math indicates I would need 100-110 for the size of Caithness and 325 for Megalos. Not sure what the point would be though of having all of those towns. The chances of their actual use/coming up in games amounts to almost 0% for most of them. Perhaps a simple farming icon would suffice.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

The Solfor Swamp could also be something like the Okovango Delta, fed by rivers from the mountains of Zarak, as you show. So it wouldn't actually have to connect to the River Kashk. If you want it to, though, I would make the Swamp's southern border at the lake.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Agreed. A 100,000-square-mile death zone is crazy; what would an acid-dwelling caustigus even eat, in a UK-sized swamp that's fatal to almost everything?

Let it be a huge wetland (or a mix of wetlands and more; again, it's bigger than the UK), known for its odd, localized acidic swamps, some stronger and some weaker. Plenty of GM flexibility there.

(Where does the 100,000 square miles come from? An eyeballed estimate based on the green patch in Banestorm's Orclands map?)

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Far up-thread, I posted some ideas on how the plains areas could hold African-themed cultures and fauna, including alkaline soda lakes. They tend to occur when water features blend into desert areas.

Mildly acidic swamps are realistic due to the presence of peat layers, but but the acid swamp from Orcslayer is pure fantasy, with acid-adapted monsters and water pH low enough to quickly cause burns.

Given that some of the soda lakes in the Rift Valley are high enough in pH to slowly cause damage, a modestly acidic acid swamp (e.g., about as strong as strong vinegar) wouldn't be that much of a stretch, if you could come up with a suitable cause.

One possible explanation is that the swamp area overlays large petroleum deposits, which off-gas hydrogen sulfide, which percolates through the swamp water to produce sulfuric acid. In most places, the water isn't that acidic, but in areas with the most hydrogen sulfide the acidity can get dangerously high such that it causes slow chemical burns. Over time, the local flora and fauna adapted to the acidic environment, filtering out acid when taking in water with the effect that pH gets really low to the point that there are areas of near-pure acid.

Or, you could just say that the acid effect is magical; either an effect of the Banestorm or the result of some dark magic happening deep beneath Yrth's surface.

Where you've got corrosive liquids, the underlying rock needs to be inert enough to prevent reactions from happening which would create caves and cause the corrosive to leach into the ground.

I like the idea of an old meteor crater in an area of relatively inert rock which created a depression. This area gradually filled with massive amounts of clay to hold the water in, except in cases where there are hydrogen sulfide seeps.

In areas near the swamp, you could have amazing caves due to hydrogen sulfide action. The same area might have petroleum seeps and methane blowouts, including places where the methane has been set on fire, creating natural "eternal flames" or "hell gates."

Edit: The fact that the acid swamp borders a major river system argues against large highly acidic areas, since the acid would tend to be diluted. The presence of a river system means that you could have extensive wetlands, however, like the Pripyet Marshes or the Everglades. That would seriously complicate humanoid expansion from the eastern part of the continent to the western area. If you like the idea of hydrocarbon-based hazards, Out In The Middle of Nowhere is also a good place for any obvious coal or petroleum deposits, since they'd be massively exploited if they were any closer to civilization.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

All excellent ideas. I updated the file today.

I also uploaded a blank map, with only terrain features. No labels or structures of any kind (other than canon Elven ruins and Djinn Towers). I hope this will be useful to folks who want to play in the immediate Post-Banestorm Era.

On my to-do list today is to tweak the mountain chain on the eastern slopes of the Nomad Lands. It needs to extend north more and meet up with the Barrow Wood and the village of Ossary. In fact, the whole chain probably should be a little more dense by a couple of hexes in some areas. I did add some information on the method that I will be using to calculate urban areas for the map. The parent document is from "Magical Medieval Kingdoms of Western Europe". At least with that I have a guide to follow as to how many urban settlements (town and up) to place on the map.


Acrosome - excellent idea on the delta. I will read up on that today. A perfect solution in my mind to this area.

tbone - I counted the hexes on my map, by hand. It worked out to 100,000.
There is a slight scale difference between the watercolor map and the hex map, but it close enough not to matter in the grand scheme of things (I consider it an "Artist Interpretation"). On my blog the watercolor map has a hex grid overlayed which works out to roughly 26 miles per hex. It has been somewhat challenging to translate between the two. My map is based on a coastal outline and a hex grid of Ytarria which I did not create. I vetted it a few times and it is very close to what is presented in the book. If you want a smaller Ytarria then you could reduce the scale to 20 miles per hex. It would not matter much.

Perhaps the Casutiguses are the degenerate remnants of the Dark Elves which caused the Banestorm, mutated by their own folly? What do they eat? Adventurers mainly...likely not for nourishment though. They probably just like the taste.

Pursiviant - always giving me good ideas. I need to make a list of them today. I will read up on the Soda Lakes today.

Interesting article about an alkaline lake in Africa.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...-stone-445359/

Meteor impacts are always fun....so are crashed spaceships with exotic leaking power cores which cause mayhem with their surroundings.

Concerning geography, you seem to know more than your average bear. Hobby or Profession? You should have written the geography section of Banestorm. I would have been easier for all of us I think.

Ideally (when the map is saved as a PDF) I would like to have the map terrain labels act as a hyperlink to a Wikipedia article concerning that type of geographic area. It would give the user an idea of what the area is actually like. So, you click on say "The Great Desert" and it will take to you the appropriate article concerning a desert. I know it can be done through Inkscape. I just need to learn how.

To be honest, what I am doing is amateurish. SJG really should contact this guy, Thorfinn Tait,https://mystara.thorfmaps.com/

Thorfinn does hex maps for just about everything, dozens of them, all in Adobe Illustrator with a level of quality that I could only dream of. He has mapped the D&D world of Mystara to an incredible level of detail...and that area is far larger than Ytarria. Give him some guidelines and creative freedom and he could take Ytarria and map it down to 8 miles per hex easily. IMO, Yrth has always languished because it lacks adequate maps of the campaign areas. This guy could solve that problem and take Yrth to a new level of professionalism for SJG. A very small investment really.

SJG - contact him! Ytarria deserves the Thorfinn Tait treatment.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

That is one big patch of green! A perfect place to hide some acid swamps, regular swamps, and lots more.

I think I mentioned this before, but the scales don't seem to match that well even within Banestorm's maps, between the big continent-sized map and the smaller maps. But as you say, artistic interpretation (and the imprecision of old-time maps) cover that, so it's all good.

Nah, I like my Yttaria large. Very large.

And detailed, too, at least for the GM's map. So I really like what you're making here!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Hobby, backed by some college courses, way too many nature documentaries and a lifetime interest in believable fantasy/ science fiction cultures, creatures and worlds.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

If you don't have access to Orcslayer, here are some other bits of tid about the Swamps of Sulfor and the Caustigus.

Swamps of Solfor: The water is actually "soupy acid" which can be deeper than 2 yards in places (deep enough to fully immerse a human). Wide hummocks, possibly floating masses of material, act as paths through narrow channels filled with acid. The lighting, at least in places where the caustigus hangs out, is unnaturally dark (Darkness Penalty -5) despite the lack of trees on the battle map. The acid which burns flesh at the rate of 1 HP/second and armor at the rate of 1 DR/2 seconds - very powerful stuff. Reptile man hide is immune to the acid effects. Earth, some types of stone and rare unspecified organic items are also immune. Everything else gets eaten away at 1 HP/sec for soft materials or half that rate for metal items. The acid retains its properties if removed from the swamp.

Since reptile men are immune to the acid (but can't drink it), it's a good place for them to appear.

It would be an easy play on words to make Solfor = Sulfur due to the hydrogen sulfide stench.

As written, the swamp is portrayed as being too big to conveniently avoid and about a day's journey to cross.

All that argues for a possibly large natural less acidic swamp, but with areas of magically augmented concentrated acid and gloom.

Caustigus: It's unknown if it's a unique creature or not. I'd argue that it's a species, since its stats aren't that impressive (DR 2, HP 16, Move 4 - an easy kill for a party of dungeon delvers except for its fast-regenerating arms and preferred habitat.). It's "aquatic" in that it lives in the deeper parts of the acid pools and looks vaguely like a giant four-armed octopus, but with hands at the end of each tentacle. It's an ambush predator which can surface unobserved and will attack at an advantage. It can also pop up in any acid hex on the battle map, even though the channels aren't contiguous. That means short-ranged teleport or burrowing or ability to swim under floating mats of stuff (peat, masses of dead grass?). Its touch is caustic, but its primary attack is to grapple, pull victims into the acid and drown/dissolve them. It's extremely sensitive to light, to the point that even torches will partially blind it and it lacks DR on its eyes, which makes it a less than impressive foe once the PCs know what to do. It's sapient (IQ 10) but vile-tempered and murderous, so it could easily be a mutant dark elf.

Since it's magic, the caustigus doesn't necessarily need to eat. If it does, it could just filter feed on acid, adding organic matter and minerals (i.e., tasty adventurers and their gear) for nutrients and flavor.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

The Orcslayer write-up does hint at a unique creature, without saying so clearly. Banestorm takes your view that it's a species, mentioning caustiguses (plural).

The book also calls the creatures solitary, so an encounter should be with just one. I agree with you that it isn't much of a challenge for most PC groups. The trick for the GM will be to play up "drag a PC into the acid, disappear, pop up somewhere else" tactics.

Still, it's a creepy and dangerous figure for any normals living near the swamps. Local legend might hold that it's a unique creature, if two are never seen at once; locals might even believe it unkillable. "My son saved me by sinking an axe into the demon's head. It sank back into the soup like a dead thing... but now some boatmen say they seen it again just two nights ago."

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I will be reorganizing my thoughts about the wetland region this weekend. There is no compelling reason to have such a large area present in that part of the continent. I think it causes more problems than its worth, especially for migration across the desert (both ways). Keeping very localized makes sense to me, likely around the southern most rivers.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Or... Okovango Delta? After all, int's in drylands. Making it endorheic allows for non-diluted acidic areas. And it covers from 2300 to 5800 sq miles every year, so it could be pretty big. A question for the geometers- how many sq miles is a 25 mile hex? If it were a circle it'd be about 490 sq miles, so covering about a dozen hexes, with one (acidic) spot that's only 1 hex wide to make it "crossable in 1 day"?

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

One hex is almost 500 square miles. I have re-drawn the whole area. I think it will suit just about everyone.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I can't access the google drive. I get an Error 400:

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I have posted a new .PGN file on the blog with the re-drawn wetland and swamp areas of the Orclands. I reduced the acidic region to a smaller area near Castle Defiant. There are other swamp/wetland areas scattered round the region to the north and south. I only up-loaded one map with the new re-drawn area. I left the others up for comparison.

Let me know what you think.

I also added some adventure areas/sites of interest around the Blackwoods.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

That would be the logical way to do it, but the acid marshes eventually drain into the Kashk River, to the south of Castle Defiant and the wooded area, which drains into the Western Sea.

There are a number of geographical oddities about the whole Solfor Swamp/Kashk River basin area.

1) It's a major river system right next to a major desert, without any obvious sources for all that water. I've got no problem with major rivers flowing through desert - the Nile and Colorado Rivers are good real world examples of those. My problem is that there doesn't seem to be enough water to feed such an extensive hydrological system. There are two major rivers that feed the lake, which in turn feeds the Kashk after flowing through the lake and marsh area.

2) You have a massive lake and marshland area, including the Solfor Swamp, halfway along the basin, that then resolves into a single river - the Kashk that flows hundreds of miles to the sea in a relatively straight line. Normally, swamp + shallow lake plus river means relatively flat land and a wide meandering river with lots of oxbows, like the Dniepr or Mississippi. The River Kashk is very straight, however, which implies a much steeper drainage basin.

3) Near the source of one of the rivers, right at the base of a mountain range, is The Great Salt Marsh. Again, it's an oddity because it's NOT endorheic.

The more logical way for a major river in a desert to happen is that you've got a massive seasonally wet area in a rift valley that eventually feeds a single major river, like the Nile Basin. Oddities oddities like acid swamps and salt lakes appear in nearby rift valleys that don't drain to the sea.

Ignoring magic origins, here are possible ways to make the Great Salt Marsh, Solfor Swamps and Kashk River basin make sense in geological terms.

1) The western Zarak Mountains get ridiculous amounts of snow. Lots of glaciers and lots of seasonal runoff. That makes sense since they're the first elevated area that moist air coming off the Western Ocean would hit. Assume that major weather systems come from the Northwest rather than the West, as on Earth, and the Western Zarak mountains act like the Himalayas or Sierra Nevadas, pushing massive water-filled clouds to high elevations where they are forced to dump their moisture as snow.

That means that the highest mountains in the Western Zarak chain are massive - equivalent to Mount Everest or K2. There will also be lots of relatively abandoned mountain valleys mostly filled with rubble and scrubby seasonal grass. It's snow leopard and Yeti territory.

2) The Kashk River basin is part of a rift valley that extends to the east and South of Castle Defiant. You've got a geological oddity in that there is a massive fault to the north of the Zarak mountains pushing south and simultaneously, the tectonic plate to the southwest is being pulled away from the central tectonic plate that forms much of Central Ytarria. Some force is making the "Castle Defiant plate" spin clockwise on its axis, opening a rift to its southwest side while forcing up massive mountains to its north and northeast.

3) At points where the rift meets the subduction zone and the mountains, you get lots of volcanic and tectonic action as well as mountainous rift valleys that feed huge amount of water into the rift valley to the south.

4) Once upon a time, there were massive inland seas on the northwest corner of the Castle Defiant fault. While much of the fossil seabed has been subducted, there are still massive salt domes, and possibly some hydrocarbons in the area of the Great Salt Marsh. The area forms a relatively flat, very large "hanging valley." Seasonal flooding from the river to the south and east periodically floods the dome area and thick layers of clay and non-porous metamorphic rocks keep the brine from escaping. The area has largely silted in, creating a massive, temporary inland salt marsh. Eventually, the brine will escape but only over a period of thousands or tens of thousands of years. For now, a low, wide ridge separates the salt marsh from the river.

Our friend the giant meteor crater could also be involved, creating a small basin, isolated from the main west branch of the "Upper Kashk River" and depressed relative to the rest of the flat upland area.

5) Both branches of the Upper Kashk are fed by massive numbers of seasonal snowmelt and glacial runoff streams from the mountains. There are dozens of different sources which flow from the north, and each is located in a rugged valley, but they only resolve into a navigable river at the points indicated on the map. Both the western and eastern branches of the Upper Kashk then meander across the tablelands to the point where they join. At that point, they form a massive waterfall or cataract and spill into the rift valley below. The river is fast-moving at this point and flows down a canyon until it hits another relatively flat area.

6) A deep depression - either a geological rift or another massive meteor crater - forms "Lake Kashk" which is also fed by the "Eastern Kashk River." This could be a broad, flat lake which is mostly silted in, or extremely deep and subject to periodic geological activity like Lake Victoria or one of the other African Great Lakes.

7) The Eastern Kashk drains the "badlands" of the Northern Great Desert. Like the Upper Kashk, it is a largely seasonal river, but it is fed by hundreds of seasonal streams and arroyos, like the Colorado River.

8) Due to its proximity to the mountains to the north, and the flow of the river draining to the west, the Northern Great Desert looks a lot like northern Arizona or New Mexico, Southwestern Utah or Eastern Montana. Not flat, but lots of canyons and gullies and seasonal grasslands. If you want cliff-dweller Indians like the Pueblo or Anasazi, that's the place to put them. Ditto for similar cultures like the Navajo or Apache or East African Rift Valley tribes.

9) The Acid Swamp of Solfor is another endorheic water feature isolated from Lake Kashk by a rift valley.

10) If you place hydrocarbons in this area, they will either be deep underground or easily exposed on the surface. That means naphtha seeps (dried up crude oil), possible methane vent flares, "tar pits" and "tar sands" and possible exposed coal faces. Exposed coal faces means that you might have naturally occurring underground fires in places where wildfires ignited coal seams.

11) Lake Kashk drains to the southwest flowing relatively slowly until it turns to the west and flows quickly down to the sea via a series of waterfalls and cataracts, possibly in the same way as the Zambezi River or parts of the Columbia River.

12) For whatever reason, the Kaskh River delta is a lousy place to build a town. The relative absence of towns along the Western coast might indicate rough cliff faces along much of the coastline, like along the U.S. Pacific Coast. Even ignoring relatively low population densities and the proclivities of the territory's orcish inhabitants, river deltas are normally great places to hunt and fish, so there should at least be seasonal villages. The fact that there aren't any settlements means the area is too steep or treacherous to settle.

13) It hasn't been mentioned yet, but historically areas with limited human presence absolutely teemed with wildlife. Even at TL3 with magical add-ons, sea life will be incredibly rich by modern standards, with incredibly productive fisheries and shellfishing grounds within a day's travel from major cities. Game would be scarce in settled areas, but biodiversity in terms of plants, birds and small animals would be far richer than in a modern rural landscape. In areas of Earth which were mostly devoid of human inhabitants, the abundance of game animals and sea life astounded contemporary observers from the 15th to early 19th centuries. For that reason, Western Ytarria might seem like a paradise to explorers from the eastern parts with salmon runs so heavy that you can just grab fish out of the river, herds of animals which an entire day to pass and flocks of birds which darken the skies at midday. Alternately, there might be less abundance of game animals and fish than historically existed in unsettled areas because there are more large and hungry apex predators.

14) The orcs might manage their territories much like the Eastern North American Indians did, burning out underbrush to create open forests and meadow areas to encourage game animals and slash and burn agriculture. That might explain the lack of forests in what should be a temperate rainforest region immediately to the west of the Zarak mountains.

15) Dragons, djinni and other powerful foes might do the same in their territories, managing herds of large wild herbivores as a food source. They might work in cooperation with pastoral humanoids, with the humanoids acting as scouts, skirmishers and herders and the dragons acting as leaders, long-range scouts and shock troops. Imagine an old-school Western where the Indians had the cavalry and it was mounted on dragons. There might be a very good reason why there's so little settlement in Western Ytarria beyond just the presence of the Djinni.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

You gave me a lot to think about. I had to print it out to digest it.

1) My plan is to redraw the western Bronze Mountains into just the area you described actually, and moving the glaciated region to the center, north to where I located the Dengar valley.

2) I re-envisioned the Great Salt Marsh as being more of a series of smaller lowland swamps, fed by run-off from many tributaries of the western Bronze Mountains. Nothing atypical about their nature. The swamps gradually give way to the dryer uplands of Candledoom Wood. I need to change the color and icons to delineate between swamps and marshes.

3) A large waterfall is a perfect idea for where the Upper Kashk branches off. I envision a second one where the other unnamed major river flows into the lower Kashk.

4) The small tributary running east of Lake Kashk (which Caithness named Lake Dundain) is surrounded by marshes and wetlands. This tributary could be fed by seasonal runoff from the mountains, running through the northern Great Desert like you described. Similar to the wadis in the southern Djinn Lands, the ravines flood seasonally. I can model these ravines which run through the northern desert by using the same method as I did the southern wadis. Alternatively, perhaps this area is fed by a permanently open magical portal to the Elemental Plane of Water, or to an oceanic world.

5) The entry for the Barony of Wallace on page 118 indicates it has water due to mountain runoff. It would make sense to add some seasonal rivers/ravines which flow through the northern rocky desert which then flow southeastward through to Wallace. Perhaps they end-up in various lakes, and or continues east until they meet up with tributaries from the Smoke River. Thoughts?

6) Funny enough I was envisioning the northern desert region just like you described, rocky and dry, not and endless dune sea. I need to add the necessary icons and contour lines to indicate these rocky areas.

7) I did envision the western coast north of the Djinn lands to be a series of cliff faces just as you described, making settlement of the coast difficult. I have since decided not to model the locations of the various orc and human tribal areas, at least for now. I feel that those areas are better left to individual GMs to determine. There are at least 12 large orc tribes and probably numerous smaller ones. Human tribal numbers are not described.

8) Your ideas for 13 and 14 are something to consider. #14 provides a plausible explanation for the lack of forested areas. This might infer a higher level of orc tribal organization than is presented in the core rules. I was never a fan of mindless orc savagery.

9) For the human tribes I envisioned a horse-warrior culture dominates the region, being an amalgamation of various human steppe cultures. Quite possibly some of the Orc tribes started to emulate this culture as well.

10) The old AD&D DM World Builder Guide gave good information about predators and their needs. A large beast, such as a dragon needs around 500 square miles of area for hunting in good areas, and 1500 square miles in poor areas. I would consider the whole area rich in game. Since each hex is 500 square miles there is more than enough room for predators of unusual size. For the Djinn Lands, I think that is best left as a DM playground, since my vision might be drastically different than what others desire.

11) I consider Lake Kashk to be a very deep lake like you described. In the depths of the lake reside "Things That Man Was Not Meant To Know".

12) The acidic swamps are a smaller area know and I am happy with their size. I see no reason for a large death-zone at all, other than for specific adventures, possibly to travel to the center of said zone for some sort of "fetch-quest".

I am trying to figure out a way to have information pop up when you click on a terrain feature while viewing the file on a browser. I have it working right now, but I am limited in the amount of text I can show at the moment. There might be a work around though. My goal is to have a fully interactive atlas, which, if you click on a "named location" it will give you a small pop-up window with a description of the area.

From north to south of the map, it is roughly 44 degrees of total latitude. For simplicity, I assumed that Yrth the same as Earth, with 69 miles per point of latitude. If we assume that the bottom is roughly 20 degrees north, than the upper part is 64 degrees; this puts the Nomad Lands and Sahud in the same climate zone as central Sweden. The cities of Megalos and Carrak are basically the same as London and Tredroy is basically Istanbul in climate. Southern Cardiel and al-Haz are in the same zone as Syria and Baghdad. Of course this can be tweaked by moving Ytarria further south if you desire. Even a 5 point latitude move south makes a big difference for northern Ytarria.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

It's also worth noting that steppe nomads and Plains Indians also used fire to keep the underbrush down and to renew pasture lands for their herds. Heavy grazing by animals able to eat scrub, such as goats (or woolens other ytarrian herd beasts?) will also keep forests down.

Another thought as to why the northwest corner of Ytarria isn't steep foothills of the Zarak range: A glacier ran over it. For the same reason that you have glacial lakes and muskeg all over northern Ytarria, you also have seriously glaciated terrain that used to be much more severe north of the Kashk River. It used to be steep foothills, like parts of Northern India, but then a massive glacier overran the area, grinding hilltops flat and filling the valleys with glacial moraines. That might result in relatively poor, rocky soil in the valleys and slightly more fertile tablelands where the hilltops used to be. The tableland areas might also be natural fortifications and corrals for herd animals.

There should still be a lot more fjord-like features along the coast, but they got sunk below the surface by tectonic action, resulting in a much smoother coastline. The whole coast is a massive sunken slip fault. The coastal chain of mountains that should exist along the coast is actually a ridge of seamounts. Imagine California sunk as far inland as Sacramento and the Central Valley.

If you buy my geological premise that the "Castle Defiant Plate" is being spun clockwise by some sort of massive coastal slip fault (e.g., like the San Andreas and similar west coast American faults) which is gradually moving north, while being subducted by the massive Zarak fault to the north, the whole area will be a geological nightmare.

The northern Great Desert and the area around Castle Defiant is a good place to put hot springs, geysers, sand blows, cinder cone volcanoes and other obvious signs that the planet's crust is hard at work.

If you take my suggestion that the terrain in the northern Great Desert looks a lot like Montana, you couldn't be too far out of place in putting in the Ytarrian version of Yellowstone. If you want it to look more like northern New Mexico or Arizona, keep in mind that there were serious lava flows in those areas in the recent geological past.

Humans and orcs living in the Castle Defiant area might not have had a choice about adopting a nomadic existence, since massive earthquakes and ash from volcanic eruptions will be regular events. People living in houses get killed during a quakes, people living in tents just get a good scare. The coasts might also be uninhabited due to regular tsunami action.

If the seismic activity is really bad, Castle Defiant is doomed by geology since the next big quake will render it uninhabitable unless it was seismically reinformed to withstand earthquakes of 8 or 9 on the Richter Scale.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

FYI
I am still working on this slowly, with long breaks in-between.

Made a few changes:
Great Glacier in Zarak is more centered.
Mountain and hilly areas in the Great Forest more cohesive.
Some additional trade routes added.
Blythe changed from a ruin into a town (for those who want to play in that era).
Some other minor changes which are too small for anyone to notice much.

I have a great fondness for the original Warhammer Fantasy World, circa late 80s. Tinkering with the idea of populating the the Nomad Lands, Orclands and central Zarak (around the Great Glacier) with tribes of Northmen from the Warhammer World: Norse, Dolgans, Kurgan, Hung. Although they spend most of their time killing each other, every so often an enterprising warlord decides northern Megalos, Caithness or Sadhud is ripe of an old-fashioned raid complete.

Perhaps the Meglan Emperor was replaced by a Chaos demon of Slannesh? That would be quite fitting for the decadent Meglan empire.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Yay! The bear is back!

If I needed to make changes to this map for my own campaign, what would be the best way to go about doing that? (Software wise) For example, in my campaign, the Blackwood has nearly engulfed Hyrnan and I'd like to update my world map to reflect. Plus...other things that may happen. Mwahahaha!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Interesting question. The working file has an .svg extension. I could send it to you and you might be able to play with it.

The original was created with Inkscape (which is a free program). It was easy for me to learn (with some practice...and I knew nothing about graphic design when I started...and I still dont). I would suggest using that software to make changes.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Nice to see your update. I was thinking of nudging the thread to ask whether you were still working on the map. As always, thanks for the hard work!

I have your page bookmarked (https://darebearsminiemporium.blogsp...f-ytarria.html), but where do we find the latest versions? (It'd be great, especially for new visitors, if there were clear links to the latest versions of files. Or maybe I'm not seeing it.)

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

That's an ambitious set of additions!


I find lots of people have their own twist on Yrth. I like saying the secret history of the banestorm is that its a prison for Dragons who were terrorizing other worlds(I can say that now! no spoilers for long campaign!), but I don't think many others are going to embrace that.

Sometimes I think it would be wonderful to have so much more detail on Yrth --- but then I ask myself how often I use the detail we have. Some of that is also about focus: Caithess has a lot more detail than the nomad lands.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I will restructure things so that finding the latest map is easier. I am still working on the mountains of the Great Forest, using Harkwood as a guide. Most of the cartography is more or less complete IMO. There is little I could add to the map at the current scale of 24 miles per hex.

Ytarria is already well detailed for sure at the macro level. In no way do I find it bland. Rather, it comes across as very rational and believable. The fact that is uses real world religions is a major selling point IMO and makes it all the more believable and relatable, at least to me. At no point do I compare our own world and its problems with Ytarria. It just never crosses my mind to do so.

Caithness has a wealth of information for it in the Harkwood supplement. If I had to pick an area to campaign in, it would be Caithness. It is close to the action and provides a little of everything, except naval adventures. My second choice would be Cardiel, which despite what the books allude to, would be mostly wilderness due to the low population. Add in some special wilderness features and ruins and you have an exciting location which can do dungeon delving, nautical action and Arabian adventures in neighboring al-Wazif.

That being said, I often think of what I might want to add to Ytarria, sometimes coming up with many wild ideas. However, in the end, I typically gravitate more to mundane ideas which keep thing in line with the current book. For example, for the Nomad Lands, despite my ideas of Chaos Warbands, I would probably use the GURPS Viking the Celt books for that area, rather than creating something new from scratch.

The Worlds Without Number RPG has a great set of tools for generating nations, terrain features, cities, organizations....the works. That is one reason why I have not detailed a lot of the named locations with descriptions yet. My idea of what is in a certain area might vary wildly from someone else. I highly recommend that book (which is a free download) for anyone who wants to customize Ytarria to their liking.

For those who may have missed it, on page 6 of Banestorm there is a sidebar comment which alludes to pre-Elven lost civilizations. It leaves it up to the GM as to what it means, but it is clear that there may be far more to Ytarria's history than what is presented in the book. Perhaps the sinking of Atlantis was a metaphor and instead it was transported somewhere....."else". GURPS Atlantis Crossover anyone?

Who knows what secrets are yet to be discovered.

Sounds like a Dungeon Fantasy campaign to me.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Araterre is an obvious takeoff on Creole country, either Martinique or New Orleans. In fact you can run with that and have zombies, longshoremen tired of hauling bananas, tiki bars, or whatever there. Naturally tropical rain forest will be there.

National borders often are rivers in real life both because surveyors find them convenient and because armies don't find them so when they are perpendicular to the march. However canon says Caithness doesn't have borders, it has marches. The Hazi border is to wild to be worth the bother to survey. While the Megolos border is where Megolan battle mages find the "magical desert" terrain uncomfortable.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Indeed, the borders for everyone are largely meaningless. The only one on the map IMO which looks funny is the Caithness/Meglan border. I thought about adding a river to delineate it. I am still on the fence about that.

To get an idea of scale, using Worlds Without Number as a guide, at 24 miles per hex, there would be at least 2 sites of interest per hex. Likely 3-4. Lairs, ruins, settlements, whatever (the math: rolling a d6 per 6 mile hex on a campaign map, with a 1 indicating a site of interest...there are roughly 16 six mile hexes per 24 mile hex which equates to at least 2 sites per hex). At this scale I have only shown the smallest fraction of what could be out there. That is an ongoing process but I have to temper myself lest I clutter it too much.

I have the Ytarrian coastline mapped out to 6 miles per hex on a blank map. The continent at that scale is massive. I dont even know where to begin at that level of detail.

Anyway, as it stands each country is huge and you could adventure in each one and never explore it all.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

Thanks, sent you a PM with my email. I'd be forever grateful for a copy!

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

The map is wonderful, I will follow the posts here to see the evolutions (apparently you are still working on it, right?)

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I am. The basic features are done (mostly). I mainly add special features as they come to me. Dungeons, unique mountain peaks, unique sites, ect.

Ytarria is huge. The potential for discovery and adventure far exceeds what is alluded to in the Banestorm book. I believe the lack of a proper map helped to perpetuate the false idea that Ytarria is widely settled with little frontier left to explore.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I have updated the maps with some additional features.

The mountains in the Great Forest are finalized and harmonized with the Harkwood supplement.

I have added farmlands to all civilized realms. The formula I used is as follows (roughly):
Megalos and Araterre - 8% urbanized
Caithness, Sahud and al-Wazif - 5% urbanized
al-Haz - 3% urbanized

"Acres" under tillage is equal to rural population x2. This was then converted to square miles. Each hex assumes no more than 125 square miles out of 500 per hex is available for tillage (25%). The rest is made up of fallow fields, streams, hills, marshes and other wasteland. Each hex with a settlement also counts as a hex for agriculture. If anyone has thoughts as to whether this is too much per hex, I would appreciate feedback. My assumption is that overall, globally, it all evens out in the end.

I dont have a lot of information for nomadic population density. I assumed about the same amount of land will be required for herding and grazing. I am likely off base by a lot here. In any case, the grassland hexes in the Muslim lands indicate the number of hexes (roughly) which are used by Nomads (yes they move around a lot).

The point to all this is to simply show how much area is basically wilderness, and or only inhabited by small groups of people. It is assumed that there are innumerable small farms, steads and hamlets scattered around the continent which are quite impossible to map.

If anyone wants a PDF copy of the map them PM me with your email address and I will send you a copy.

Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added
 

I kinda doubt if the continent were that untamed that we'd see superstates or imperial adventurism on the scale written in the history. Like, why would Megalos be that intent on warring with the Muslim powers if there was just loads of land unused throughout the whole eastern half of the continent?