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View Full Version : A Map of Tell's Howe - Digital Watercolour with town descriptions/backstory!



Aard_Rinn
2014-07-19, 02:01 AM
So, it's back to school in another month, and that means back to the two games I DM.

At the end of last semester, my players all decided that they wanted to reroll their characters. My games are heavily roleplay based, and unfortunately, most of them chose very one-dimensional character ideas that had nowhere to develop beyond their current point, so they were getting bored. Needless to say, I didn't mind - I look forward to seeing what they come up with over the summer! But that means that I, too, must apply myself - and by apply myself, I mean churn out a crapton of maps.

Now, I use lots of handouts in my games. And most weeks, I spend 2-5 hours just working on them, getting things pulled together, rehearsing names and memorizing key points of that week's story. But maps... maps occupy a special place in my heart. Making them is a time-consuming effort, however, so I do it all over the summer - and now, the first of my labors have born fruit!

Behold, the map of Tell's Howe (the nation, not the city of the same name...)!:

http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2014/199/3/9/map2named_by_aard_rinn-d7ravxk.jpg

This took me about 5 hours; it's about 2/3 of the way done. All that's left is to soften the writing to 'black walnut' from 'true black' and add a compass rose and milesign... and perhaps some waves and dragons and such to the water. But this is almost all of the actual mapwork!

All of the locations are fleshed out, too, although some areas aren't on the map - it wouldn't do for the party to know about the witch living in Grenneth's Deeps, for example, or the shard of crystalized electrical energy at the bottom of Halter pond, guarded by a water weird... This map is designed to look like something the party might be given in-universe, perhaps a watercolor map drawn by a wandering cleric with a more artistic bent.

Some locations of note:

Tell's Howe (nation) - More of a city-state, really. About 60% of the population lives in the city of Tell's Howe, which is a trade powerhouse - the rest are hunters, farmers, fishemen, and charcoal loggers in the woods to the north and south.

Tell's Howe (city) - The largest city in the world. On the edge between the North and South Continents, Tell's Howe is a blustering center of trade and commerce. Though it was destroyed during the Mortal Wars, it has since been rebuilt by the combined efforts of the half-dragon Naii Uuishi, her lover Liir, and the dark elves who live in the ancient remains of the older, forgotten city over which Tell's Howe was originally built.

The Dawnway - The ancient road leading north from Tell's Howe, mirrored to the south by the Duskway. A flat, broad road, it travels up northward to Raahlsheim in the far north before splitting off and heading east to Tenumbrae.

Weptman's Hill - A steep hill, collapsed away, overlooking the Dawnway. At the top stands an ancient gibbet, long-empty. Once, this was where traitors and spies against the 'Howe were left, hung as a warning to all who entered of the penalties that would be visited upon those who threatened the city; now it hangs as a grim reminder of the worst years of the Mortal Wars. At the base of the scrape is a pile of bones, many now nearly dust, from where the rotted bodies were tossed, festering, to be replaced - at night, some tell of the dead rising up to seek vengeance or mercy, and few will ride past this point after dark.

Endel - A quiet town one day's ride from Tell's Howe. It's a popular stop for people entering and leaving the city - most choose to spend the night here, rather than try to deal with the hassle of the gates on an empty stomach and tired temper. Endel has a strained but friendly relationship with the goblins of Ogden's Heath, to the south.

Ogden's Heath - A twisting cave network to the south of Endel, inhabited by a goblin clan. The goblins get on alright with the people of Endel, trading game, wild herbs from the marshes, and firewood for grain, metalworking, and leather - still, there is always a bit of suspicion when sheep go missing, and it's not always unwarranted...

Halter Pond (and Halter Marsh, surrounding) - A wide, flat marsh, at the center of which is a deep pond. Skaldi (tiny lizard-fairies) colonize the marsh, while a water-weird, Ziekern, guards an ancient shard of electrical magic at the bottom of the pond.

Jem's Crick - A small river flowing from the Vernon Mountains to the northwest through the Driebeck Woods. It is home to the naiad Xenion, and her lover, the kelpie Kyros.

Driebeck Wald - a dense woodland of white birch and maple trees. In it's middle is a split stone, through which can be reached the court of Tyrciel, the Winter King of Faery, and his immortal human lover, Arcien.

Jovell - A fishing village on the west coast of Tell's Howe. It conducts little trade, despite it's nearness to the Howe, because it lacks any sort of bay or deepwater port. They also make a lot of fine charcoal, and do a limited trade in peat coal and peat oil to wizardy types and artificers.

Grenneth's Deeps - A thick forest to the east of Endel. It is inhabited by many strange and savage animals, warped by elven magics or faery powers, and at it's heart lives the druid-witch Hiata, with her familiar, the stag Andollian.

Illorein - An elven village, reclusive and not entirely welcoming to outsiders. Comprised of a holt of elves forced to flee their southern homeland during the Mortal Wars and their descendants, the elves who dwell here prefer to keep to themselves, preserving their own culture and living according to their ancient ways. Nevertheless, they aren't hostile, and maintain friendly trade relations with Endel, their primary contact with the outside world.

Innemurn Wald - Once an extension of Grenneth's Deeps, Innemurn has been magically shaped to be more like the woods of the Southern Continent than any found in the north. Many rare birds and exotic species dwell here, and the trees and flowers are unfamiliar to most northerners.

Fort Thaumtach - An ancient, abandoned fortress from the Mortal Wars, destroyed by the same advancing army that eventually took Tell's Howe. A wall, now in ruins, runs from one side of the peninsula to the other past Thaumtach - sparks and shards of the magic that bound and reinforced the wall still sometimes flaring out amongst the shattered stones.

The Arisan Fields - Great wide fields of grain to the north of Tell's Howe. These are mostly in Andarres, the country to the north of Tell's Howe.

Marris - A small city in southern Andarres. It is a hub of grain production - the Zelbuma River, running just to the north, allows easy access to the Great Inner Sea, which in turn allows trade access to the rest of the world.

Weee! So many things! Just... Twenty more or so of these to go? But, of course, it's easier to do the rest once you've done the first, since you have a styles reference and colorsheet. None of this 'trying a bunch of colors to see which one works' BS. Feel free to use this if you like it - if people want, I'll post the next one when it's done...

This was done via Paint Tool SAI, btw, with paint.net for the text. I used a Bamboo Tablet for drawing.

Palanan
2014-07-19, 08:53 AM
This is quite a lot of work you've put in here, and it looks like you've got a setting with much to offer in terms of roleplaying potential.

A couple of comments on the map. A scale of miles would certainly help; my first impression is of a much smaller region than your setting notes suggest. --And yet, Endel is only a day's ride from Tell's Howe? A little confusing without a clear scale.

I'd also expect other towns along the Dawnway; commerce follows easy travel, and if nothing else you'd expect a few little crossroads hamlets where country lanes wander up to meet the Dawnway. Also, how do travelers cross from the eastern terminus of the Dawnway to the island of Tell's Howe? Bridge, ferry, something else? And the Arisan Fields: are these cultivated, or is this a natural prairie or savanna?

Another detail: please note that "Strait of Split Tides" would be the correct spelling. I would also suggest reducing the size of the town-dots, since they seem rather awkward as large brown discs. You might try using different symbols (a small turret, a small cottage, etc.) to differentiate these settlements and help give each one a unique visual marker. That way when your players look at the map, they won't see uniform brown spots, but cottages, huts, towers all indicative of the personality of each location.

One other comment for now--it wasn't immediately apparent to me that the the Great Inner Sea was actually a body of water; it took a minute for me to work that out. You might want to either change the color for the sea, or perhaps try setting it off in some other way. Rhumb-lines would look very period and give it a nautical flavor, just as one suggestion.