Wilderlands and Blackmoor in Postcataclysmic Mystara

[ripvanwormer]

This is weird and wrong and filled with errors, but I was trying to visualize for myself how the various parts of the Rhadamanthia map fit with the Mystara map, and for now at least it's working better with postcataclysmic Mystara than precataclysmic Mystara. That doesn't mean it's set after the Great Rain of Fire, just that I'm imagining the geography looking more like it does in the present day, without the radical continental shift.

I dunno, maybe someone wants to look at the results?



This is sort of a placeholder for now; eventually I want to redesign it so that the "Sea of Esterhold" area looks more like the Winedark Sea of the Wilderlands, and change the shape of some of the other continents, particularly Skothar in the Blackmoor area.

Meneshire, Keneshire, and Teneshire are the halfling homelands on the Rhadamanthia map, if that isn't clear. They got relocated from the Blackmoor area to Davania, the map's biggest shift.

[ripvanwormer]

Some notes:

Ghinor, as a fantasy pastiche of ancient Egypt (in some versions of the Wilderlands), really ought to be where the Isle of Dawn is today, in what is modern Thothia. Perhaps Belissaria hadn't yet risen from the sea, and the Isle of Dawn was closer to Skothar than it is today.

The Great Lakes: swamps, tundra, Ice Priestesses, hags, mammoths, other Ice Age megafauna, deserts of ash and dust with ruins of long-lost kingdoms, minor kingdoms on the coast founded by humans who were formerly enslaved to the giants.

Glacier of the White Wyrms: Ice Priestesses, megafauna, a few dinosaurs near hot springs.

Sea of Grass: Tharbrians, amazons, and other nomads, sabre-toothed tigers, raptors.

Land of Beasts: More prehistoric animals. Also beastmen?

Valonaria: The Valonar are savage cousins of the Avalonians. Related to the Valemen? There are also Avalonian colonies up here.

Vales: Home of the Valemen. Related to the Valonar?

Vanaraya: Once this was a northern paradise kept artificially warm by the gods, but the Vanarayans sinned and were frozen in punishment, awaiting the day that they're forgiven. Their barbarous descendants, worshipers of a wicked god of fire, are the Afridhi.

Goblin Kush: The homeland of the Afridhi.

The Tempest Lands: A place of ruined cities filled of cyclopean statues, possibly abandoned by a long-ago lost civilization of giants.

Skandahar Peninsula: Fierce northern raiders and explorers, worshipers of Odir and his pantheon.

Aran: South of Viridistan and west of Ghinor is the hidden city of the aranea spider-people. They may also have spread to the Oltec lands of the Savage Coast.

The Three Shires: Meneshire, Keneshire, and Teneshire are the halfling homelands. They would have been conquered long ago by the Serpentine Empire were it not for their alliance with the Golden Empire, the White Snakes of Tara-Naga, and the celestial serpent King Muchalinda, who dwells within the Addakian Sound.

The Giant Lands: Known as Gandhar to some, the Giant Lands are the last great civilization of giants since the end of their kind's age. Everything is oversized in this region, from animals to plants and trees. Yet even here the giants are few in number; their kin, the demi-giants, are the primary inhabitants, with many other races serving as their slaves. In the south, the Tinikik halflings practice fishing and sea-trade on behalf of their demi-giant masters.

The Infinite Desert: This vast waste separates the northern jungles of Davania from the Serpentine Empire and Horned Empires to the south. It is inhabited by many races of nomads, many of them followers of the god - some say Old One - Mycr.

Kingdom of Karak: This ancient empire once ruled much of Thonia, and even today it extends into the northern Tangor peninsula. The ancient capital, Kaijing, is actually in the eastern, Tanagoro half of the kingdom.

Skullie Amazons: These female-dominated warriors, the Kokkinos, are Tanagoro in heritage and independent from neighboring lands.

Empire of Tangor: These dark-skinned people are rich in gold, ivory, silk, iron, spices, and diamonds. Sub-kingdoms include the People of the Dragon, the Iron People, the Beholder People, the Spider People, and the Dream People.

The Lesser Horned Empire: This breakaway Serpentine nation worships the Chaos Lord Arioch.

The Great Horned Empire: Another Serpentine state, this nation worships an archdevil they call Asmodeus. Nearby, the Chaotic Horned Empire reveres countless entropic Immortals.

The Serpentine Empire: Also known as the Demon Empire by its enemies, this state more than any other retains the legacy of the ancient imprisoned Carnifex, still revering the Outer Beings once venerated by their forebears. It has been in a long decline since the imprisonment of the Burrowers, fragmenting into several warring states (the various Horned Empires, which have fallen into heresy).

Naga Delta: This is the homeland of the nagas, a snake-people who are said to have been creations of the ancient Carnifex. More benign than their Serpentine neighbors, some are allied with the halflings. Downstream is the Great Wurm Gap, a vast canyon filled with gibbering, alien abominations anathema even to the Serpentine Empire.

Overdark Island: Part of an island chain called the Infinite Islands, Overdark Island was once a paradise of elves, halflings, and fey, but was long ago conquered by the Serpentines, who twisted, corrupted, and reshaped all life on the island into mutant slave races and unseelie horrors. Men from Lhomarr invaded the land and broke the power of the Serpentines on this island but were destroyed themselves, leaving only savage tribes and ruins. Since then, the Serpentines have returned to establish a few colonies, but most of the island is still wild and strange even to them.

The Infinite Islands: North of Overdark Island is a vast archipelago populated by inhabitants of Karakhan, Serpentine, Ghinorian, Orichalan, and Tanagoro descent. Other islands are home to unique peoples, dragons, and fey.

Fairtrade Isle: This is the primary trading hub of the Infinite Islands, where all peoples, no matter how good or bad, are welcome as long as they have something to buy or sell, from Skandaharians to Thonians to dragons to Serpentines to half-giants to fey and even stranger peoples.

[Yaztromo]

I think this thread http://blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/viewt...=52&t=2847 may have some relation with yours...

[Havard]

Great work Rip!

I remember something similar coming up in discussions when I first posted my maps of Skothar with the Wilderlands incorporated. The main issue with this model is that you would have to change the scale of either the Wilderlands maps or the Mystara planetary map, but I doubt it would have such big consequences.

Where did the different "Shires" come from?

-Havard

[ripvanwormer]

The main issue with this model is that you would have to change the scale of either the Wilderlands maps or the Mystara planetary map, but I doubt it would have such big consequences.

Yeah, the canonical Wilderlands is kind of a tiny area, though I understand that the map scale was originally a mistake. I haven't looked to see what scale it'd have to be changed to yet, though. I just think the geography matches up fairly well this way (and the Great Rain of Fire can explain a lot of discrepancies; I'm sort of excited to see what it'll look like if I warp things more).

Where did the different "Shires" come from?

They come from The World of the Wilderlands of High Adventure and the accompanying map. On that map they're in the northeastern portion of the continent, approximately where I placed Blackmoor. Obviously that won't do, and I think they're more interesting in Davania anyway, dealing with the Serpentine/Demon Empire instead of the Karakhan.

[Rafael]

8)

Nice...

Now, the only nitpick I'd have:

Blackmoor should be more in the center of the world, and not some very remote place, with most water around it.
I know canon goes otherwise, but still...

[Havard]

The main issue with this model is that you would have to change the scale of either the Wilderlands maps or the Mystara planetary map, but I doubt it would have such big consequences.

Yeah, the canonical Wilderlands is kind of a tiny area, though I understand that the map scale was originally a mistake. I haven't looked to see what scale it'd have to be changed to yet, though. I just think the geography matches up fairly well this way (and the Great Rain of Fire can explain a lot of discrepancies; I'm sort of excited to see what it'll look like if I warp things more).

Yeah, I am pretty relaxed about the scales of the Wilderlands maps myself.

Although my own work is now quite heavily founded on the Hollow World maps, this is definitely an interesting experiment!

Where did the different "Shires" come from?

They come from The World of the Wilderlands of High Adventure and the accompanying map. On that map they're in the northeastern portion of the continent, approximately where I placed Blackmoor. Obviously that won't do, and I think they're more interesting in Davania anyway, dealing with the Serpentine/Demon Empire instead of the Karakhan.

[/quote]

Ah, thanks!
I do like the placement of these Halfling lands. IMC I have also tied the proto-Halflings to the Ulimwengu Pygmies (from Champions of Mystara). Their history, leading up to the time of the High Heroes and the discovery of the Blackflame (possibly via the Dimension of Nightmares) is worth exploring in more detail!

-Havard