Village of Taffarel

The “Village of Taffarel” was my entry into the Cartographer’s Guild September/October 2012 Lite Challenge.  The challenge was to create a village map which depicted a secret of some kind.

This village is situated on a series of small plateaus in a mountainous region of my Al-Qadim campaign.  Its sort of a frontier outpost that sits near the mountainous boundary between semi-arid planes of the north and brutal desert to the south (Al-Qadim proper).  It is therefore largely autonomous and informally ruled by a large extended family whose elders are the head priests of the local temple.  The villagers themselves are primarily former nomads who have settled in this area for protection from other nomadic bands and tend livestock.

This map contains two secrets (although they were not depicted explicitly). Unbeknownst to outsiders or the average villager is that this ruling family is actually a clan of Lycan (Were-Hyenas) who have been terrorizing many of the nomadic tribes and small villages in the surrounding area.  Furthermore, the local temple is a shrine to “Inalla” who is commonly known as a goddess of nature, survival and instinct, but lesser known as the patron saint of Lycans.  The high priest in this temple is the Progenitor of this Were-Hyena bloodline and the family compound to the east is the home of his clan.

The second secret is that this clan of Lycan have also entered into an alliance with a Drow community.  The details of this community and the nature of their relationship to the Lycan still needs to be developed, but it largely revolves around inciting broader unease/rebellion in the Elvish communities of Al-Qadim.  The Lycans protect a secret entrance to the Underdark that lies beneath the temple (more specially, beneath the State of Inalla in the main hall of the temple.)

The temple was made with CC3 and utilizes textures modified from CGtextures.com.  It also relies upon symbols that can be found in the CSUAC and Dunjinni forums (Special thanks to Bogie for providing the Statue of Inalla.)  The rest of the map was created in Photoshop.

Lost City of Ubar

August/September 2012 Cartographer’s Guild Lite Challenge Winner!

The challenge was to create two maps on the same image which depicts something before and after an event.  The inspiration for my entry came from a documentary I had seen on the History Channel a few months before. Part of it discussed the legend of the ancient desert city of Ubar (which some believe to have been in modern day Oman.)  The basic story is that this thriving trading center in the middle of the desert eventually collapsed on itself as the Oasis depleted.  (i.e. the water cavity beneath the city which supplied the oasis eventually caved in).  When I got into mapping a few weeks later, I kept thinking about how i’d like to eventually recreate the city and adapt the story to the Al-Qadim campaign that I’m running.

My adaptation to the story can be found in the text of the map. The basic gist is that the city was destroyed (by a similar means) as revenge for the ruler’s betrayal of a Genie.

I learned a great deal about Photoshop in doing this map and really benefited from the thoughtful comments and critiques from others on the forum.  The Work-In-Progress thread can be found here.

 

Glandred’s Hollow

This map was made using Photoshop for the Cartographer’s guild July/August Lite Challenge (2012).  In the challenge you had a limited shape and color palette to work with.

The map depicts a small village lying in the shadow of a small mountain.  Inside the mountain lies a Dwarven city/mine.  The village serves as a above ground conduit for the outside world and assorted trading goods; along with providing an added level of security and home for a variety of little races (gnomes, halflings, etc.)

I arrived at the name using a Dwarf name generator program.  It translates into “the lost maiden”.  I used that name to develop a little back story and the lyric displayed in the border.

Without Hope But Undeterred,

The Maiden Awaits Her Lord’s Return,

Beyond Our Gates And In The Shadows,

Forever Known as Glandred’s Hollow.

Generations ago, a Dwarven lord went to war and never returned.  His lady was inconsolable and refused to believe he was dead.  She spent the rest of her days roaming the shadows of the mountain…and her spirit remains (to either curse or protect the village…haven’t decided yet.)

 

Desert Ravine Community

This is one of my earlier maps which depicts a small desert community overlooking a ravine and another city situated at a lower elevation.  I haven’t developed any kind of back-story or defined the locations – but I do plan on developing a  region in my world in the future where the geography is similar to this (i.e. plateaus of varying elevations in close proximity).

 

Made with CC3.  Cliffs were done using overlays downloaded from the Dunjinnin Forums.  Most objects can either be found there or in the CSUAC.