Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added

[darebear]

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.