regional map - Knights' Fellowship

esorth

Working on a map in in the fantasy worlds style for the region my players will be questing in for the next few adventures. Not quite the super large scale the style was designed for, but it looked right for the feel I wanted for the region. I went with it and adapted.

The region is built around the three civilizations that live there, dwarves in the mountains to the north, elves in the forest in the south, and humans in the open in the middle. This map is focused on the humans with little to no detail given on the domains of the other races.

The humans have formed in to a lawful country called the Knights' Fellowship, ruled by a council of knight lords in sort of a feudal confederacy. Each knight lord rules over his own subregion of the country. Lesser knights are then responsible for border defenses including a large fortress at the only pass through the eastern mountains and a series of guard towers along the outskirts of the elven forest (sort of a cold war going on with the elves).

Map is still a work in progress, so I'm open to ideas for improvements. I've rendered two versions, one with and one without the knights' subregions marked out.

jonasgreenfeather

Hi Esorth, welcome to the forum. I really like the part of the map that "Yellow Knight" rules over; you did a good job on the hills. The mountains in the Elvish forest are a great touch. I'd like to offer some observations, though: You wrote the style is a little to big for the map, but I'd scale up the forest symbols a bit, at this level of detail, they almost blur together into a green static. Also, you may want to add a TRANSPARENCY effect instead of a BLUR to the contour under your mountain; the whole of your map is a well balanced and subtle blend of fields, plains and hills, but when you get to the mounains,... BROWN! Just needs a little softening.

From a narrative perspective,why does the "Red Knight's" subregion not extend all the way to the coast between the mountain ranges? Just curious

Great work, I look forward to the finished map.

esorth

Perhaps something a bit more like this?

I'm sure the red knight would claim that as his territory, but this is how the rest of the knights draw up the territory. Mr Red (I haven't given him a name yet) is sort of the least popular knight and least powerful with his subregion off on the far side of the country from the main civilization points. This is about the extent of the region where he can exert any influence.

jonasgreenfeather

Posted By: esorthPerhaps something a bit more like this?

Much better! I'm not sure how this would look: but what if you tried an EDGE FADE,INNER effect on the forests also? just a subtle one, it would soften their "pointy edges" (maybe try an Edge Width of 3 or 4 to start). Keep up the great work.