Maps of Mystara at the time of Blackmoor

[Sturm]

Shawn put it also on the Vaults: http://pandius.com/mnwblkmr.html
This is a very nice map. I like the idea of a "New Blackmoor" being a colony located where The Known World is in modern Mystara. This also helps explain some inconsistencies in the source material. Looking at the map it is sometimes hard to recognize which parts are where compared to AC1000, but recognizing the features of Rockhome and Ethengar helps.
I notice Geffronel and Gennaleth already being in place at this time. What do you think of having these elves be colonists from Thonian/Blackmoor elf clans?

Well canon is not much clear so anything goes.. I suppose they could be either davanian or skotharian colonists.. or a mix of both. Also Ethengar probably shouldn't be already there, but I liked the idea to connect Cretia to the struggle against blackmoorians, so...

IIRC the Giant Kingdom on the Isle of Dawn was called Ghandar in Mishler's version. Was that changed to Ghaudar at some point, or is that a typo?

It's a typo, it was really "Kingdom of Gandhar", I'll correct it!

Do you have any of the Blackmoor settlements from various modules, Dragonlord novels etc on this map?

Yes they are the cities connected by the purple radiance line. The unnamed ones in the dwarven principalities would be Darmouk from the Dragonlord trilogy and the others as proposed by Chimpman in this thread at the Piazza: http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopi ... uk#p112489

Interesting! Thanks for the nod about the Valley of the Ancients. I am curious about the large lake to the south of Blackmoor. Is that the southernmost lake from the HW precataclysmic map? I was working from the assumption that that lake was in fact the Black Sea of Blackmoor...

Yes, but as there are two lakes in the map I assumed that the northernmost is the Black Sea of Blackmoor, while the southermost would be in Thonia (as I think there is an agreements that name tags Thonia and Blackmoor should be inverted in the HW precataclysmic map) and indeed I plan to place Mohacs some 300 miles east of the lake/sea.

Interesting. Although weren't there other openings to the HW back then? Or am I misremembering?

I think that canonically there weren't any. IMO that's impossibile, as in this case all western Brun and Vulcania, being inside the HW curvatures (or beyond 90N and 90S as shown in the Hw planetary map), would be non-existent at the time. I prefer to think that the opening existed but were even more magically hidden than now.. i.e. truly impassable by mortals.

The results are definitely very cool. I see you have put alot of thought and work into this.

Indeed, and I had to make choice that maybe some will not like but it was necessary as there are no consistent canon answers.

My map is actually just based on the HW Precataclysmic map. OTOH I have later made changes to Skothar to incorporate the Judges Guild's Wilderlands Setting along the southwestern part of that continent.

You're right, I meant that in the HW map and your map the projection of Davania seems different, i.e. the continent seems "fatter" as in Mentzer's map. I enlarged Geoff's map of Davania because his one was even slimmer, but even so my projection is still much less large than the HW planetary map. I think however that if the shape of Davania in modern map is more or less correct (and I already enlarged it!) then in the HW map projection the size of Davania is quite exaggerated. About the Wilderlands setting I plan to use bits of it, but eliminating all the alien races it has, and I want to use the shape of Skothar similar to the HW map so I haven't included the shape of the Wilderlands map.

I don't like the idea of the North Pole being located at Ethengar either. As you point out, having almost all of Brun under the arctic circle means that tracing the history of the Known World back to the Blackmoor Era is almost pointless. Also, the idea of having Blackmoor on Skothar was introduced in the Hollow World Boxed Set. Why use that theory from the HW boxed set, while insisting on the placement of the North Pole from an older source? If you want to be consistent with Pre-HW Box material, then the North Pole could be at Ethengar, but you cannot have Blackmoor on Skothar..

I agree, also the oldest sources IIRC hinted that Blackmoor was once the Known World, then the Gaz said the Known World was the North pole, then the HW set said it wasn't. As always canon isn't consistent and BTW mapping 3500 BC Mystara in hexes with the KW as the north pole would be a nightmare I think my solution saves as much canon as it's possible, because if the Known World was New Blackmoor that explains why some sages/sources think Blackmoor was there, and Jaggar for example could have found his weapon in Glantri, without the need of him travelling to Skothar..