Community Atlas: Dendorlig Vale, Malajuri
Wyvern
🖼️ 203 images Mapmaker
If you read through the draft PDF version of my notes on Dendorlig Hall Village, part of the megadungeon/abandoned Gnome city I've been working on this year, which was added to this Forum topic on 18th Feb, you might have spotted I mentioned there a couple of places outside the Hall complex, above ground, including Dendorlig Vale. At the time, I wasn't sure if I'd be mapping that area as well, having already distracted myself far more than I'd intended away from my main focus of mapping the Errynor region in NW Alarius.
This impression wasn't helped by a couple of abortive attempts to design the map during February-March, as although I'd a hand-drawn set of ideas for the area's layout, when it came to the CC3+ mapping, I couldn't get it to look like how I wanted, in the styles I'd thought might work best. There were two main reasons for this. One was that neither of my preferred styles had a complete set of options for the structural features I wanted to add. The other was that the colour palettes involved were rather too close to the Alyssa Faden style, which I'd already used in my earlier Clack Valley map for the Atlas, and I couldn't get past the fact it felt too much like mapping the same place again; daft, of course, as it isn't, but that's what kept tripping me up.
Thus matters rested, and I'd half-decided I probably wouldn't map the Vale area after all, until I saw the brand-new E Prybylski Watercolour style in the just-released CA 196, and realised it would work very nicely for what I wanted! So here it is, still subject to amendments, given the Hall's own mapping remains in-progress only, but I am happy with the overall look now:
It's a very attractive style to my eye, and fits nicely with the somewhat bucolic view I had of the repopulated agricultural lands south of the Hall, peopled by Gnomes and Halflings, hence the names. There's a higher-res version in my Gallery as well, although even at the reduced-size for the Forum, the style seems clear enough already.
Now though, I've got another map to do a write-up for, besides Dendorlig Hall!
So this won't be going into the Atlas immediately, but, and with apologies for the belatedness of the request, @Monsen, could you reserve the Dendorlig Vale area on the Mt Dendorlig Region map in the Atlas for me, please...
Comments
Beautiful maps, Wyvern :)
I think this is the first one I've seen using Ellis's lovely new style.
Thanks Sue. I found it a really pleasing style to work with; the colours just have that Dunsanian magical feeling to them - colourful, but a bit old-world/dreamlike-muted.
Might be fun to see an expansion for some different styles of settlement in it, perhaps - Elf, Dwarf, Halfling structures, say, some ruins in all styles, and some magical site markers - although there's a lot of excellent scenery already in it, of course.
All good suggestions :)
Ralf mentioned on today's livestream (April 6th) featuring this new style that it is to be extended later in the year, which is excellent news, I think! Look forward to that!
If further suggestions might help, a couple of differently-angled bridge symbols would be nice, in addition to what I mentioned before here - and watching the stream, maybe an oasis symbol for the deserts too.
It's been a while! However, I've completed the PDF notes for this map now, have made a couple of minor tweaks to it, and have now submitted it for the Atlas.
This is the final map version (larger version updated in my Gallery too):
And this is the descriptive PDF:
Although I had fairly clear ideas of what features were going to be where in this small area, some additional elements were added randomly from a new paid-for product available on DriveThru RPG by Atelier Clandestin, called "Sandbox Generator". While this allows the construction of entire regional or larger hex maps, together with many items that may be found in such areas, including settlements and dungeons suitable for a low-magic, more-or-less pseudo-feudal, world, I chose just a few of the more interesting "decorative aspect" tables, plus one or two from the settlement options, to spice-up some of the places in the Vale. Not everything rolled made it into the final notes of course, as not everything randomly-selected always fits well enough. This seems to be an interestingly detailed system, even if I was only able here to test a few parts of it. Long a fan of trying-out random systems, as I may have mentioned on the Forum previously 😉 .
In case anyone's wondering, I have been continuing with the write-up for the large Dendorlig Hall subterranean map as well, although other things (including this map's notes!) have slowed progress there over the last couple of months. Hopefully though, I'll have an update for that too shortly.
Thanks @Wyvern . It is now in the atlas.