There's been a lot of talk over at Canonfire! about the lands beyond the Flanaess; the fabled lands of Zindia, The Celestial Imperium of Suhfang, Erypt, the Empire of Lhynn, etc. Issue 26 of the Oerth Journal focused on this very topic, providing some fan-created speculation (in many cases based on careful research of the few scraps of information we have) and fan-produced maps of the lands of western Oerik.
Purely as a matter of personal preference, though, I don't much care for the style of map that is currently the rage amongst my fellow Flanaessophiles (seen in the aforementioned issue of the OJ). The original maps of the Flanaess, created by Darlene, were and remain the benchmark against which all other such fantasy cartography is measured.
Fortunately, Joe over at Inkwell Ideas has something to help. His Hexographer program (which I heartily recommend) is capable of making maps that, while not exact, perfect copies of the Darlene style, certainly come close. I found it worthwhile to have the professional version, which allows the import of custom map symbols (such as the volcanoes in the map below, in the southern portion of the Hellfurnaces).
So, just as a test, I decided to take a move in the direction of fabled Zindia, the Pearl Sea, and Nippon, and put together a map of the southern half of the Amedio Jungle (which was detailed in the 3.x module The Scarlet Brotherhood). When printed, my map should fit along the southern edge of the Darlene map. This is just a test, mind you, and I don't claim perfection by any stretch. But I'm reasonably pleased with the result.
The idea now is to move westward along the coast, slowly working my way to Zindia (which itself contains such fabled lands as Jahind and Mulwar) and then expanding out beyond. The above map took several hours, but a lot of that was due to the fact that I was experimenting, choosing fonts, creating some custom icons, and the like. It should go much more quickly the next time.
Purely as a matter of personal preference, though, I don't much care for the style of map that is currently the rage amongst my fellow Flanaessophiles (seen in the aforementioned issue of the OJ). The original maps of the Flanaess, created by Darlene, were and remain the benchmark against which all other such fantasy cartography is measured.
Fortunately, Joe over at Inkwell Ideas has something to help. His Hexographer program (which I heartily recommend) is capable of making maps that, while not exact, perfect copies of the Darlene style, certainly come close. I found it worthwhile to have the professional version, which allows the import of custom map symbols (such as the volcanoes in the map below, in the southern portion of the Hellfurnaces).
So, just as a test, I decided to take a move in the direction of fabled Zindia, the Pearl Sea, and Nippon, and put together a map of the southern half of the Amedio Jungle (which was detailed in the 3.x module The Scarlet Brotherhood). When printed, my map should fit along the southern edge of the Darlene map. This is just a test, mind you, and I don't claim perfection by any stretch. But I'm reasonably pleased with the result.
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