Absolutely THE Coolest Mapping Project I've Ever Seen

If you're into maps, you have to watch this short (10 min.) video, which I'm sure many of you will find near and dear to your heart (and probably inspirational):

Jerry Gretzinger also has a blog where he details some of the progress on the map, which is created according to self-consistent (but steadily changing and growing) rules, and randomized by drawing cards from a deck to determine what gets changed or added to, and where. It's now ensconced in the blogroll to the left.

(Hat tip to Pharyngula)

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: All Together Now!

Well here we are.

The final corrected versions of the maps are now all gathered into a .rar file (link to the right in the "Free Resources" section). It's pretty big-- took me four minutes to upload on a cable connection, but I think it makes more sense than keeping them all out there individually. These final versions of the maps have a few more tweaks than just correcting the colors of the oceans; a few other things here and there jumped out at me while I was putting this beast together, as a final "thank you" for all the support I've gotten over the last nine weeks or so:

That's in the .rar file, too. The seams between the maps aren't 100% perfect, owing to the cropping on the edges of the Hexographer files I did when transferring them to .png format. But hopefully you can get some idea of the scope of the thing; I also included scans of the original Darlene maps in the far upper-right corner, to give a sense of scale and to show how the Flanaess that we all know and love fits into the larger construct of Oerik.

Over the course of this project, a lot of possibilities came to mind as I was reconciling the various sources, some of which were contradictory (or even self-contradictory). Sure, we know that a chute in the bottom of the original Castle Greyhawk took players to China (Suhfang, above), whence they had to make their way back overland. But what I love are the implications that the various sources bring when put all together.

For example, the Empire of Lynn is apparently sitting out the mad scramble for the panoply of the former war god Stratis off in the northwestern corner of Oerik. Why? Surely a powerful city-state such as that wouldn't let such an opportunity go by without some reason. Does it have something to do with the religious situation in Lynn? Are the powers-that-be so squeamish about anything that smacks of polytheism that they choose not to have one of their own strive for apotheosis?

One also has to wonder how Suhfang, one of the largest empires on the planet, would react to the establishment of a gnoll-minotaur-demon realm on their northwestern border. I envision that Naresh has pretty much run out of petty warlords to take over, and that explains (in part, anyway), their turn back westward over the mountains. Perhaps they calculate that Ravilla would be a softer target than Suhfang; maybe they even had their snouts bloodied once or twice to convince them.

The placement of Zindia and Woguo (aka Nippon) actually makes a lot of sense when viewed in context. It gives a rationale for the existence of martial-arts-wielding monks in the Scarlet Brotherhood (within journeying distance of Woguo). I also envision a southern exodus of Suel refugees into Zindia, after the Rain of Colorless Fire, leading to their becoming established as the fair-skinned master caste (much like the Brahmins of historical India).

On a technical note, my original maps were made using Hexographer Pro, and I can't say enough good things about that program from Inkwell Ideas. It's well worth the modest price, very flexible, and intuitive to use. From there I transferred them to GIMP, where I cropped the edges (and also where I put everything together for the continent-wide map you see above). Perhaps someday soon I will go through the exact process for some of the tricks I used in Hexographer; sometimes the coastlines and islands could be tricky, and I think that half the job is finding the right fonts to use.

Anyway, it's been a load of fun, and quite interesting for me as a scholar of Greyhawk lore, to go through this exercise. I hope my fellow Greyhawk fans find the results of my labor useful. Nothing will ever compare to the hand-drawn maps by the incomparable Darlene, of course. Those gorgeous maps still adorn my office wall (the originals, which I had laminated, still looking great after 32 years) and still inspire me to venture to the Flanaess in my mind's eye whenever I cast my gaze upon them. Thank you, Darlene, for such inspiration, and thanks of course to Gary Gygax for creating the original World of Greyhawk. You are missed, Gary.

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Ocean of Storms

And here we are, the last map of western Oerik. The new map is in the lower-right corner below; I'm including the surrounding maps so you can see how they all fit together.

As usual, the link to the largest size file is off to the right.

One thing I particularly want to mention is the source of the Great River Ithru; I envision it as an enormous spring gushing out of the mountains, with its origins either in the Elemental Plane of Water or the Underoerth, according to contradictory local myth.

I also envision great religiously-fueled tension between Erypt and those lands to its south. The Eryptians revere the river and have a taboo against living on the west bank, which they associate with death. The very existence of cities along the west bank of the river is an affront to their religious sensibilities, and wars have been fought trying to raise them to the ground in the name of faith. (The Eryptian city of Dahina does not count, as it is in the great delta of the river, and not along the river proper.)

The free city of Urush-Pth I see as a haven for outcasts from Erypt, full of plotting and intrigue against the dynasties of the priest-kings, fueled by the agents of Kesh, Memr, and Buha. Its position also makes it the first civilized port of call for eastward-bound trading vessels from Ishtarland, the Tharqish Empire, and Lynn, so it could be a fascinating place indeed.

While at some point I will probably tackle Fireland and Hepmonaland, my principle aim is now achieved; pulling together the disparate sources that described western Oerik and hopefully making some sense out of sometimes contradictory material. One thing I will be doing in the next day or two is to adjust some of the colors on the oceans; I don't have the color progression quite right from shallow to deepest. Once I've made those adjustments and re-run the maps, I'll bundle them all together into a single compressed file for download, and maybe, just maybe, I'll have another surprise at the same time. We'll have to see.

Until then, enjoy, and thanks for everyone's support while I've been doing this. It's been a lot of fun!

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Barbarian Seameast

I can't believe that I've come so far so fast with this project. Today I present the eastern half of the Barbarian Seameast, but I also made some adjustments to the three adjacent maps as well (mostly consisting of making the deserts just a tad less empty). The newest map is the one in the lower-right, below:

As always, click to embiggen, and download links for the large-sized files are off to the right in the "Free Downloads" section. Next up, one more map eastwards, covering southern Erypt and the Ocean of Storms, and then the maps of Western Oerik are complete!

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: Ishtarland

The circuit of western Oerik is almost complete. My latest map covers the southwestern corner of the great continent; Ishtarland, half of the Barbarian Seameast, and the Red Kingdom. I've also made major revisions to the Drazen's Horde map (the one in the upper-right position, below), based on feedback regarding placement of some of the lands from the Chroniques de la Lune Noire. The Red Kingdom has a unique sort of terrain, to indicate the extent of the red rocks and sand that give the place its name; I don't feel like I'm straying too far from the original feel of the Darlene maps in this, given that the Bright Desert was also a unique terrain type.

The newest map is the one in the lower-right below; I'm including some of the surrounding maps so you can see how they all fit together (click to embiggen):

As always, links to the largest-scale files are off to the right in the "free resources" section. Four maps to go; next up is the rest of the Barbarian Seameast and the southern half of the Blazing Desert, whence came the humanoids of Drazen's Horde. Then finishing off the desert south of Erypt, two maps of Hepmonaland, and this baby is done!

Then I can get on with the gazetteers. ;-)

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Tharquish Empire

At long last, another in my series of Darlene-style maps covering western Oerik. This time, we cover the Tharquish Empire and the remainder of the Tharquish Dominions. I envision the region as a Greco-Roman type place (which is attested to in the Chroniques de la Lune Noire, which shows a decidedly Classical Tharquatis about to get taken out by a tidal wave; but that's okay, because it's no more canonical than Tharizdun destroying Oerth in the Gord the Rogue books), with lots of hilly terrain broken up by smallish woodlands.

I also made a few changes to the Free States map, which I'm posting here so you can see how they fit together. The one on the bottom is the new one. Click to embiggen.

As always, the latest largest-scale versions of the maps are available off to the right in the "Free Resources" section.

You'll also notice a corner of Gonduria off in the extreme southwest corner of the map; I deliberately didn't put anything there, because the focus of this series is Oerik itself, and I'm leaving Gonduria as a blank slate (for the nonce...). Next stop, Ishtarland, the Red Kingdom, and the Barbarian Seameast. Only four maps to go!

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Cityographer Kickstarter

From the fine folks at Inkwell Ideas who brought us Dungeonographer, Hexographer, and the Coat of Arms Visual Designer comes... Cityographer:

You set some preferences for the city you want (technology level, population size, whether the city has a river, if it is on the coast, etc.) on a setup screen and it will randomly generate an entire village or city for you.  (You can also start with a blank map/city.)

Not only will the program generate the city’s map, but it will generate simple floorplans of the buildings, and each building’s residents and any important belongings.  If the building is a business you’ll also get a list of the staff and a menu or price list of products available.

Further, everything and anything can be fully or individually re-generated or hand edited!  So if you don’t like the whole city, just start over.  But if you simply don’t like the placement of a few buildings, move them or delete them and add new ones.  If you don’t like a particular building just regenerate it or an aspect of it.  For example if the building is an inn, regenerate it or regenerate just the staff or just the price list or hand edit any particular item!

I have had wonderful experiences with Inkwell Ideas' other products, and their Cityographer would cover the last base pretty niftily, it seems. Check out the kickstarter campaign, which has a little more than a month to go, but still has a ways to meet its goal. Joe's a great guy and he makes useful and very easy-to-use software; I'd encourage everyone to support this one.

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Sundered Empire and Lynn

Apologies for not posting much in the last couple of days, and for not having any updates to my "Mapping Beyond the Flanaess" series lately. Hopefully today's post will make up for that with three, count 'em, three new maps. These cover Thalos, the Free States, and Drazen's Horde, finishing off the Sundered Empire region. This batch also includes the Empire of Lynn, detailed in François Marcela-Froideval's series of graphic novels Chroniques de la Lune Noire. Way down in the southwest corner, you can also see part of the Tarquis Dominions and Ishtarland from the DA #1 map. I'm including the previous map of Ravilla and Mordengard (in the upper-right, below), so you can see how everything lines up.

This was, in many ways, the trickiest batch of maps to do, not only because they all needed to be done together (because as you can see above, the way the grid lined up, several places such as Thalos and Lynn really need the adjoining map to give context), but also because I needed to fully integrate all three of the main sources for this region; the Sundered Empire (itself made up of several books, modules, and Dragon magazine articles), the Black Moon Chronicles region (mostly in French, but the graphic novels do give occasional snippets of geography), and the Dragon Annual #1 map. Sometimes these three sources flatly contradicted one another (as with the placement of the Empire of Lynn) or needed some slight nudging to make them work, but on the whole, I think things came out pretty neatly.

As always, click the above maps to embiggen, and the download for all the maps in largest size is off to the right in the Free Resources section. Up next; we go south again, and then back east, covering the Tharquish Empire, the rest of Ishtarland, and the Barbarian Seameast.

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: Ravilla and Mordengard

Now we really start getting to the heart of the Sundered Empire; the elven Empire of Ravilla (a collection of gray elf city-states in the open land, and wood elf settlements in the large woodland I call the Deepingwood) and the dwarven People's Republic of Mordengard. Tucked away in the southeast corner of the map are several of the numerous human, gnome, and halfling lands and settlements that sprang up when the Empire of Ravilla withdrew to consolidate its borders (hence the name of the setting). I also made some substantive changes to the Naresh map to reflect the fact that Ravilla's borders should go all the way to the mountains. Here they are side-by-side:

As always, click to embiggen, and the links to the latest, greatest, and largest versions are over to the right in the "Free Downloads" section. Up next: another turn southwards, getting most of the rest of the Disputed Regions, the Elvanian forest (the upper reaches of which are in the southwest corner of the current map), Drazen's Horde, and down as far south as eastern Lhynn and the Tribes of Enlaves (and even a bit of fabled Ishtarland, land of the two rivers).

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: Ahmut's Legion and the Blasted Desert

Hot on the heels of my last map comes the next in the series, this time finishing up (completely) the lands of the Celestial Imperium and moving more into the territories of the Sundered Empire. I've also redone the last map somewhat, adding a number of petty states west of the mountains to fill in what are collectively known as the Disputed Regions, and the Celestial Sea also got a touch-up in the southwest corner, adding a couple of coastal towns. Here are the four maps that connect to one another; the newest one is in the lower-left.

As always, click to embiggen, and the full-sized version can be downloaded off to the right in the "Free Resources" section.

I anticipate that the new map will get some more touch-ups, especially in the large desert area, once the adjoining map gets done. Some notable features; the Kingdom of Prestoria, which I envision as having been founded by Pholtan zealots, refugees from the Pale, some two and a half centuries ago, and now a model Flannish nation in the midst of the lands of the heathen. The mysterious isolated city of Shemhamforash in the midst of the mountains known as the Spine of the World. The Duchy of Sitang is in a pickle, strategically speaking, because although it remains loyal to the central government of the Celestial Imperium, they were almost completely cut off when Shuyin declared its independence. And of course the motley assortment of petty states betwixt and between the major powers of the Sundered Empire; the maps above cover Ahmet's Legion (a vast army of undead associated with a cult of Nerull called the Red Scythes) and the demonic gnoll kingdom of Naresh.

Next up, I go west again, covering Ravilla and Mordengard.

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The Kingdoms of the Marches and the Disputed Regions

As I continue to move westward across Oerik with my "Mapping Beyond the Flanaess" series, I find myself on occasion needing to reconcile disparate sources. In addition, I am keenly aware of a problem with the various sources that cover western Oerik; specifically, they're just too frigging big and empty, compared to the Flanaess. (This last point was explicitly mentioned by Nellisir in the comments of my last post, and it's one I completely agree with.)

At present, the two sources I'm dealing with in western Oerik are the map found in Dragon Annual #1 (which came with a single page of thumbnail descriptions of the lands it depicted), and the Chainmail game of 2001/2002, which featured the northwestern corner of Oerik as its setting (called "The Sundered Empire", for the elven Empire of Ravilla which used to dominate the entire region). Here they are for reference:

My immediate problem lies with what are called the Kingdoms of the Marches on the DA #1 map (on the bottom). The accompanying text describes them thus:

A temperate land filled with princely states. Perhaps another locale colonized by seafarers from across the Solnor (Ocean).

Setting aside for the moment the question of where they might have originated (although it is plain that they share the same sort of pseudo-European culture of the rest of the Flanaess, from the above description), if one looks at the map of the Sundered Empire (on the top), it's clear that the area is actually held by Ravilla, which is an empire of elves. Fortunately, the "Elven Lands" on the DA #1 map fits in well with that, so it seems to be a question of what to do with the "Kingdoms of the Marches".

We're given some latitude by the fact that the DA #1 map is presented as a sort of "player's map", and no guarantees are given as to its accuracy, especially in terms of small detail. Given that, it seems a small thing to shift it down just a tad, south of the Empire of Ravilla. But that puts it squarely in what Chainmail calls "the Disputed Regions". And that's all to our advantage.

From my reading of the Chainmail material, the "Disputed Regions" aren't ever really fleshed out. They used to be under the control of Ravilla, but the elven empire has withdrawn its influence over the years, leaving a vacuum that's been filled by the other factions (Naresh, Ahmut's Legion, etc.), and leaving a big empty hole in the middle where the fighting is supposed to take place (implicitly).

And there we have the solution not only to the question of reconciling the two sources, but to filling in the broad expanses of western Oerik. Shift the Kingdoms of the Marches south just a tad, and they fill in fine for the Disputed Regions. and, since they're a collection of "princely states", they are both a) politically disorganized and broken into many small nations and (potentially) city-states, and b) allow us to fill the gaps between the various big factions of the Sundered Empire with many small states, adding much-needed interest not only to the map, but to the geopolitical situation in the region. None of the "princely states" would be a power on the level of a Ravilla or a Mordengard, but certainly would add for enormously interesting play as a collection of squabbling minor powers with constantly shifting alliances, interests, and so forth.

One question remains; what distinguishes this anarchic land of petty princely states from the "Free States" on the Sundered Empire map? Well, the text of the Chainmail rulebook gives us the answer, I think (and also provides the next link in the chain of source material). Page 18 mentions the "Free Cities" as a "loose assembly of city-states" which is good for little else than providing mercenaries for the major factions in their quest to recover the dead god Stratis's panpoly ("The Godwar", which forms the chief impetus for action in the Sundered Empire setting), and thus have one of their number become the next god of war. Stratis was the neutral brother to evil Hextor and good Heironeous, all of whom are sons of Stern Alia.

So there we go, I think.

The "Disputed Regions" of Chainmail are the same as the "Kingdoms of the Marches" of the DA #1 map. Petty squabbling bits of dirt that the surrounding powers see as little more than a battleground. None of them has large population centers; towns are going to be capitals here. The "Free States" on the Chainmail map are actually a collection of city-states, sufficiently divided to not count as a faction in the quest to become the next god of war (yet), but a source of mercenaries, and because of their urban nature, distinguished from the Disputed Regions on the map.

And, we might surmise, one of those city-states is called Lhynn (the Empire of Lynn on the DA #1 map-- more on that at some later date). It's powerful enough to be labeled an Empire, and has expanded its influence eastward across the desert. But in a desert waste, such notions as territorial integrity are notoriously ephemeral. It's distracted by its own issues, but who knows what could happen if it took an interest in the Godwar?

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: Naresh and Northwestern Suhfang

Apologies for the time it's taken to get to the next map in my "Mapping Beyond the Flanaess" series. I was waiting for some materials to come, since the maps are now definitely moving into the Sundered Empire region. Here we have the northwestern portion of Suhfang, the demonic gnoll realm of Naresh, and the western High Khanate. I'm including the central Suhfang map next to it, so you can see how it connects to the whole.

As usual, click to embiggen, and the link to the best-res version is over to the right, in the "Free Resources" section.

I anticipate a new version of this map will be forthcoming with changes to the lands west of the Stormwall Mountains once I get to work on the map immediately west of it, because that's just how these things go. But this'll do for now.

Note in particular the winter ice bridge that connects the mainland of western Oerik to Telchuria (aka Hyperboria). Naresh controls everything from the Arfast Forest to the towns beyond the Flailwood, but it's mostly scattered pockets of gnolls and other fell beasties, scattered over a wide area. Their southeasternmost lands used to be under the control of Suhfangese expatriots who had set themselves up as local warlords, but who grew too reliant on their gnoll mercenaries and were overthrown one after another, until now the gnolls are coming up against Suhfang itself. Naresh also disputes the claim of the High Khanate to the Last Plains and the Spearguard Peninsula, and clashes between the two are common, but for now the attentions of Jangir, Priest-King of Naresh, are turned westward...

EDIT: By the way, there's just one new map, covering both Naresh and northwestern Suhfang. The map I posted next to it is the Central Suhfang one. A couple people seemed to be confused by the naming.

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Monday is Sundered Empire Day

That's what it seems like, anyway. Today the postman dropped off the research materials for my Mapping Beyond the Flanaess project, as I'm now moving into the territory that was used as the setting for the Chainmail miniatures game from 2001/2002, known as the Sundered Empire. It sits in the northwestern corner of Oerik, and fits in pretty nicely with the rest of the info we have. I was able to snatch up the three books I needed from eBay at low low prices. So I'll start to scour the three books; Blood & Darkness, Fire & Ice, and the Ghostwind Campaign for any suitable information, and begin to press on westward with the mapping. Woo-hoo!

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Celestial Sea

As promised, yet another in my series of Darlene-style maps that take things on Oerth beyond the confines of the Flanaess. This time, we see the Celestial Sea, southern Suhfang, the Isle of Dragons, and Erypt. This brings most of the lands of the Celestial Imperium into view, with only a few of the westernmost provinces and border marches left to do. I also touched up the Zindia/Golden Jungle map based on decisions made doing this one. As always, click to embiggen, but even larger versions of the maps are available off to the right in the Free Downloads section. Here are four of the five maps put together to get the whole effect...

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Also, please take a minute to check out the Adventures Dark and Deep Kickstarter campaign. Help make the ADD rules supplement, suitable for use with all 1E-compatible games, a reality!

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Low Khanate and Central Suhfang

Admittedly, this was an easier map to do, since Telchuria is mostly empty, as are the Low and High Khanates, but I've got to say these are coming easier and easier to me. Still, I never thought I'd belt it out in a day!

I also made a couple of changes to the map of the Orcreich and eastern Suhfang, in response to a bit of feedback I received on a mountain range name (thanks!) and as expected the result of seeing the two maps side-by-side. The revised version is above and is now linked over to the right in the "free downloads" section.

I'm now firmly into the territory depicted on the map from the 2001 Chainmail game, which led me to include a spur of the mountain range I call The Reins. It doesn't exist in the DA #1 map, but it's most definitely there in the Chainmail map, so I added it. It does add a bit of interest to a fairly dull map. The city of Haven up in the valley between the High Khanate and the Orcreich has nothing to do with the product from Game Lords back in the 1980's, but I do find the name evocative and thought that was a good place to put a lawless town of renegade humanoids and horse-nomads. It's purely my own invention; I don't think there's any canon source for what might be up there.

Speaking of the Chainmail map, it does imply that the whole of Suhfang is wooded. I'm taking that a little less than literally, and interpreting it so that Suhfang has scattered woodlands throughout its length.

Next up: I move south again, covering the Celestial Sea, the southern coast of Suhfang, Dragons Island, and northern Erypt. This map might take a little more time than this last one, because it's going to involve research as to the geography of Erypt, as envisioned by François Marcela-Froideval in his Chroniques de la Lune Noire.

And the gazetteer has not been forgotten, promise!

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Also, please take a minute to check out the Adventures Dark and Deep Kickstarter campaign. Help make the ADD rules supplement, suitable for use with all 1E-compatible games, a reality!

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Mapping Beyond the Flanaess: Eastern Suhfang and Orcreich, Gulf of Ghayar

I'm on a roll!

Behold another effort in my Mapping Beyond the Flanaess series. This map covers the eastern portion of the Celestial Imperium of Suhfang, the eastern half of the humanoid empire known as Orcreich, the the Gulf of Ghayar region which marks the westernmost edge of the Baklunish lands. I'm including the map of the Golden Jungle region so you can see how they fit together.

I had to take a liberty with the Ataphad islands in the northeast corner of the map. Some sources have them slightly more eastward than I have them here, but it was necessary to scoot them a bit to the west in order to accommodate the ocean depth lines on the left edge of the original Darlene map that came with the 1980 folio and gold boxed set.

I deliberately eschewed the fan-created material surrounding the Gulf of Ghayar (Istustan, mostly), for the same reason I did so with the Golden Jungle map. I'm trying to start solely from canon, and then filling in the missing details as seems best to me. In doing the research for this map, I was a bit surprised to see just how much canon material there is for the western Baklunish region. Risay, the Gulf of Ghayar, the islands, Komal, Mur, etc. all appear in published sources. We also see the last three of the nations bordering the Sea of Dust as mentioned in Gary Gygax's novel Sea of Death; Sa'Han, Behow, and Chomur.

The full-sized .png file for the map can be found in the free resources section over to the right. I'm still working on the gazetteer covering these maps, but the pace of my cartography is outstripping my writing for now. It is coming, however, and a lot of the details for the various provinces of the Celestial Imperium, the tribes of the Orcreich, etc. are on the way. Please, though; I know a lot of people don't like Orcreich as a name. No need to harp on the fact that I used it. It's canon, I don't mind it, and I used it. Feel free to call it Darak Urtag or whatever you want in your own game.

Up next: I go west, covering the remainder of Orcreich, the central region of the Celestial Imperium, and the Low Khanate. Expect a revision to this map once the next one comes out; I wouldn't be a bit surprised of some labels and such need to be moved around near the left edge of this map.

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Also, please take a minute to check out the Adventures Dark and Deep Kickstarter campaign. Help make the ADD rules supplement, suitable for use with all 1E-compatible games, a reality!

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Gonduria, Aquaria, and Oerth's Four Continents

"Leda! Please don't quarrel with our friend. You are allowing the archfiend his way when you do that," Gord said gently. "His question was deserved. It was also practical." The three had been chivvied and chased across the whole of the world. From the distant south, through the Moving islands, up and across Gonduria's vast continent, and thence across the Agitoric Ocean to western Oerik's shore. No fastness or barren or mountain chain had served to conceal them from the hounding of Tharizdun and his yeth.

-- Gary Gygax, Dance of Demons, p. 402

The location of the continent of Gonduria and the Agitoric Ocean has been a question that has vexed Oerthophiles for quite some time. We are told in the Guide to the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting that "Oerth has four great continents and countless islands, and four great oceans and countless seas which surround these bodies of land." (Guide, p. 4) But the Guide only names one of them; Oerik, the continent on which the Flanaess can be found. The text accompanying the Dragon Annual #1 map clearly refers to Hyperborea (the icebound land at the north pole of the planet) as a continent. So that's two down.

The names (if not the locations) of the oceans are all accounted for. The Solnor and Dramij Oceans appear in the original folio maps. The Ocean of Storms and the Oceanum Titanicum are in the DA#1 map. And finally the Agitoric Ocean is mentioned above, but there's no indication of its location except that it is between Gonduria and the western shore of Oerik. Hey... wait a sec... that's five oceans! Obviously two of those named above are actually different names for the same body of water. But which two? Back to that question below.

We are also told that Aquaria is one of the continents on Oerth, some 5,000 miles east of the Flanaess across the Solnor Ocean (which, we are told is only 3,000 miles wide!). Some sources state that Aquaria is on Aerth rather than Oerth, but there's no reason there can't be an Aquaria on both; the one on Aerth is 5,000 miles away, the one on Oerth is only 3,000 miles. Works for me. So that's four continents named. But where the heck is "vast" Gonduria?

For a while, I was inclined to label the westernmost portion of the vast landmass found in the DA#1 map as Gonduria. In the same way that Asia and Europe are deemed to be separate continents even though they share an enormous land border, so too it made sense to me that Gonduria and Oerik could be situated. That would put "the western shore of Oerik" as the western coast of the peninsula upon which the Nippon Dominion is found and would fit in nicely with the quote from Dance of Demons, above.

Unfortunately, the publication of 2001's Chainmail, with its "Sundered Empire" setting dashed this possibility. Although it is set in the northwest corner of that great landmass and thus adds some much-needed meat to an otherwise scant area of the campaign world, it is clearly stated in multiple sources that the Sundered Empire is situated in western Oerik. I don't share the misgivings of many of my fellow Greyhawk fans concerning the setting; I think it  has a lot of possibilities, and can be made to fit with the rest of what we know about the area.

We also know that François Marcela-Froideval's campaign, which includes the lands of Lynn (Lhynn), Erypt, etc. fills up the southwestern portion of Oerik. His Chroniques de la Lune Noire have a ton of information on this region, but that's a subject for another post...

There's also the inset map from the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer that shoves Fireland some 3,500 miles to the west and shifts the landmass seen in the lower-right corner of the DA#1 map over to connect with the landmass in the lower left corner, creating one continent-sized landmass southwest of the Tharquish Empire. Given the fact that the DA#1 map is presented as a sort of "adventurer's map" and is not necessarily 100% accurate, these sorts of changes pose no problem. (The map I found to the right is from the Dungeons and Dragons Gazeteer, and thus isn't exactly the same as the inset map from the LGG, but it's close enough to give you an idea of what it looks like. The one in the LGG has some more empty space off to the right and slightly different labels.)

That landmass, I think, fills the bill for Gonduria. It's in the right place (assuming the waterway between it and Oerik is in fact the Agitoric Ocean; we're still working on that superfluous fifth ocean). Is it "vast"? Well, it's about the same size as the Flanaess, so given the fact that "vast" isn't the most precise unit of measurement ever invented, I'd say it could apply. It's certainly in what would be called "the distant south" from a Flanaess-centric point of view. And, given its position, that would cinch the identification of the Agitoric Ocean as being one in the same as the Oceanum Titanicum. From our postulated Gonduria you cross it to get to the western shore of Oerik. Nice and neat, methinks.

We still need to place Aquaria, home of the Aqua-Oerdians and Frank Mentzer's campaign since 1976 or so. Time for an itsty bitsy bit of math. (I know, I know, I'm ignoring the implications of a spherical world and Mercator projections and that stuff. I'm a history major, not a geography major.)

Oerth has a circumference of 25,200 miles. Oerik is (very) roughly 10,000 miles across, including the Flanaess. The inset map from the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer is about 21,500 miles across from edge to edge. Coincidentally, from the eastern edge of the Flanaess on the LGG inset map is... 3,000 miles. Just the right amount of distance to cover the known width of the Solnor ocean before it hits the edge of the map. And that map also leaves us with roughly 3,700 miles to have another continent which would be... Aquaria. Not that Aquaria has to be 3,700 miles across; it could be significantly smaller. But it would be continent-sized, and therefore would serve to separate the Solnor Ocean from the Oceanum Titanicum/Agitoric Ocean.

So there it is. Gonduria is the continent southwest of Oerik. The Agitoric Ocean is the same as the Oceanum Titanicum, and is separated from the Solnor Ocean by Aquaria. Four continents, four oceans, lots of disparate canon sources, some of which are mutually exclusive, reconciled. Ta-da! If you put the pieces together, it looks something like this:

(Note that Aquaria is on there just to establish its position, not to indicate its actual shape. Continents and oceans are capitalized.)

I realize some of the above conclusions diverge from those of other Oerthophiles, some of whom name Hepmonaland as a continent, and who conflate the Agitoric Ocean with the Ocean of Storms, along with other differences. But given the sources, I think my solutions make a lot of sense, and of course since it's all "canon reconciliation" there is no single right answer. If I've overlooked anything, I'm sure my gentle readers will let me know.

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Beyond the Flanaess: Zindia and the Golden Jungle

As promised, I'm continuing to undertake my mapping project, doing the lands beyond the Flanaess in the Darlene style (nowhere near as cool as the original, of course, but a close enough approximation). Today I present the lands to the southwest of the Sea of Dust; the many kingdoms of Zindia, the Ryuujin Dominion, and the southeastern reaches of the lands of the Celestial Imperium.

I've also redone the first map in the series, making some corrections and changes. The rivers in the jungles look much better now, and I've added "Raj" ("kingdom") to the names of the Zindian lands. As always, click to embiggen:

Most significantly, I've changed "Nippon" to "Woguo". The appearance of "Nippon" as the name for this nation comes from Dragon Annual #1 and it's famous map of the lands beyond the Flanaess, but explicitly states that this is probably not the right name. Some GH fans use "Ryuujin", from an article in Dragon #277, but nothing explicitly ties Ryuujin to the Nippon on the map other than the fact that they both sound Japanese. Given the fact that Ryuujin loosely means "dragon king" in Japanese, I object to it as the name of the place for the simple fact that it would render the names of the two seas surrounding it (the Sea of Nippon and the Sea of the Dragon King) superfluous. So, given that there is no real canonical name for the place, I'm going with Woguo pending a more authoritative ruling.

I didn't update the small gazeteer I did earlier, but Zindia as I envision it is not one monolithic empire, but rather a mixture of several different independent states. Some, the various Raj's, are more traditional feudal-type realms. Others, the Ashrams, are communal realms where everyone is, in theory at least, of equal rank and peaceful co-existence is paramount.

The Golden Jungle is a land of dinosaurs and ruined cities. Shemri-no, the free city, is a land of legend, where powerful priest-mages supposedly keep the very multiverse itself in balance. Visitors to the place are rare, visitors who return from it are almost unheard-of. I deliberately did not place the lands from the "Sagard the Barbarian" books here as was done in Oerth Journal 26. If one looks at the maps in the books themselves, it's really a poor fit, and despite the existence of a place called "Ratik" in the first book, they aren't really set on Oerth, but Yarth, and I prefer to keep my 'rths separate.

The Celestial Imperium of Suhfang (Shufeng) is also seen, at least in part, in the latest map. While the central Empire is still solid, consisting of a number of different provinces, the outlying regions have fallen away and become independent states unto themselves. Thus we see kingdoms such as Yanjing and Yuyuan. Some of those breakaway kingdoms on the far side of the Tsangling Mountains have themselves been conquered by the expanding empire of Woguo, and are now part of its Dominion on the mainland.

Aside from the overall geography and a couple of the place names, little of these maps is canon. But they're useful (I hope) and certainly fun to make, and I certainly don't mind giving a slightly different take on the lands beyond the Flanaess.

EDIT: If you look over to the right in the "Free Resources" section, you'll now see links to the full-sized .png files. That should quiet all you who are demanding larger versions of the maps; that's as big as I've got on my hard drive! ;-)

Next up: I'm either going north, and covering more of the Celestial Imperium, Orcreich, etc. or going even further west and covering Erypt and the eastern reaches of some far-fabled lands such as Lynn and the Red Kingdom. We shall see.

Maps done using the superb Hexographer mapping software. Check it out if you haven't already!

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Beyond the Flanaess: Sea of the Dragon King

Inspired by my success with the map of the southern Amedio Jungle, I thought I might expand the project a tad. As I mentioned previously, the lands south and west of the Flanaess have been tackled by a few people before me even though canonical references, beyond the map in Dragon Annual #1, which is good for little more than a few names and major geography, and the Sundered Empire setting from the D20 Chainmail game, are few and far between.

So, without further ado, here's my first map Beyond the Flanaess: the Sea of the Dragon King, in the style of the best gaming maps in the world, by Darlene. This map fits below the Sea of Dust and Amedio Jungle on the maps included with the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting folio, gold box, or From the Ashes. Click to embiggen.

My own attempt is a deliberate effort to go back to the few scant pieces of canon we do have and build directly on them, rather than trying to incorporate other people's fan material (the Sunela Coast, for example) or material that isn't quite based in Oerth, but has, from time to time, been made to fit therein (Hitaxia, Momboddo, etc. from the Sagard the Barbarian books).

What I did use were Gary Gyagx's Gord the Rogue books which, although lacking in detail, at least gives some names of the nations surrounding the Sea of Dust, and thus at least a place to start. That, plus the map and one-page description in Dragon Annual #1, were my chief sources (although the upper-right corner of the map is based on material from The Scarlet Brotherhood by TSR). I'm also trying for an interpretation of oriental culture different than that presented in Kara-Tur (which ain't going to be easy). Thus, my take is going to be a little bit different than that of others over the years, but, hey; it's all mostly non-canon anyway, so why not make it my own?

Also, I threw together a quick couple of pages describing the countries and natural features on the map. Nothing fancy or too in-depth, but you can download it here.

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A Little Ambition is a Good Thing

Q: How many Darlene-sized maps would it take to cover the Oerik map from Dragon Annual #1?

A: Seventeen

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