Maps

I friggin love fantasy maps!

I can’t count the number of times I traced the map at the front of The Hobbit or how many hours I’ve just stared at the map in Half A King.

I had to make terrible scrawlings of my map to be able to write my stories with consistency. When I got closer to publishing, I decided to try to create a better version of the map myself because A) I’m too cheap to pay someone else to do it and B) Doing something like this gives me another reason to procrastinate on all the other things I should be doing.

So here we are!

Darmeria is a huge continent. Way up in the northeast is the country of Norbury. The most remote section is Stanton Valley, where Forged In Flame takes place. It’s the final frontier, the wildest lands in the melting pot of a continent. Human settlements infringe on dying elf lands where orcs thrive amid dwarf ruins. It was fun to imagine and even more fun to draw.

Here’s the progress leading up to the final, completed map:

[click images to enlarge in a new window]

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	The first draft is obviously pretty basic. I’d drawn the whole world over a course of years to be able to write in it, but it wasn’t suitable for putting in the actual book. I scrawled out the rough borders in Paint to get started.
	Using my rough draft as a guide, I started to get some of the key features boxed out in a way it would make sense for the story.
	Next, I started to put in some texture, add some woods, and draw out some cities. There’s still a lot to go, but after testing out a lot of different styles, I’m set on how my mountains and forests will look. Cities and water are still a work in progress.
	And there it is, with all the finishing touches, done!

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