Seven Kingdoms map updated
kevbeck43
🖼️ 13 images Surveyor
I have posted a different version of this map before but since then I have made adjustments. The rivers in my previous version really didn't make sense. I think they make more sense in this map. I have also included the beginnings of some text on one of the kingdoms shown in the map. Namely the kingdom of Renda.
Opinions? Comments? Ways to make the map more realistic? Thanks to all!
Geography
The feudal kingdom of Renda, once known as Suuri vanha valtakunta, the great old kingdom in the ancient tongue, lies on the westernmost reaches of The Nineteen Kingdoms, a region of feudal nations located on the northern part of the Odrian continent. Renda encompasses about 8250 square miles and borders the Shannic Ocean directly to the south, the kingdom of Vorai to the southeast, the River Halla and the barbarian nation of Darwar to the north, and finally the Forgotten Forest directly to the east and north of Vorai.
Tharo, Capital of Renda
The great trading city of Tharo is the capital of Renda. Tharo is located on an island just off the western coast of mainland Renda. In the present day, Tharo is the major trading center in all of the western kingdoms. Three major trading routes converge on the city and Renda benefits greatly from the trade that occurs there year-round. There are five other major trading towns in Renda, four along the trade routes emerging from Tharo and one located just outside the Kalkov Hills in central Renda. All of these towns have a major economic and political impact on Renda but Tharo is the true center of power in the kingdom.
History
The kingdom of Renda can trace its various royal lines back 1500 years. In the beginning of this history, a barbarian known as Tharo the Beast came to power by winning many tribal warriors from the ancient bloodlines of the Kestri to his side. Together they conquered all that opposed them and set up a city Tharo named after himself. Over many generations, Renda grew in power and influence, once controlling all of the western kingdoms, spanning nearly 50,000 square miles of land. Since that time Renda has suffered many setbacks and over the last two centuries the kingdom has lost much of the territory it once claimed. There are many incidents in Renda’s history that historians point too as reasons for the kingdom’s decline. The wisest of these scholars point to one event being the singular most significant. This event is framed by an ill waged war of expansion remembered only for the swath of death and despair it caused.
Two hundred years ago the Rendan king Igsnar the III, more infamously known as Igsnar the Hideous, attempted to conquer all kingdoms of that time in a war of vile aggression. This conflict caused the torturous deaths of thousands in needless acts of wanton bloodshed. It was in this war that Renda lost much of its land, honor and power. Igsnar's butchery put a stain on Renda that still exists to the current time. To this day kingdoms affected by Igsnar’s merciless armies use his name in the vilest of curses. Igsnar’s actions have placed a foul mark on Rendan history that can never be erased but despite a drastic reduction in territory and status after the conflict, Renda has slowly repaired its reputation and standing among the other kingdoms as time has passed. This is due to the work of the last two kings after Igsnar and the current efforts of a relative newcomer to the throne.
Alain VII is the current King of Renda. Alain has ruled for the last twenty years since his father Alain VI's reign ended at the hand of his own Queen, the current monarch's deceased mother. Alain's first duty as a young king just into adulthood was to have his own mother beheaded for this treasonous crime. The newly christened monarch stood and watched the execution as it happened. Many in the court did not know what to expect after this event. Those closest to Alain feared the trauma of seeing his mother executed, on his command, might scar him in some unforeseen way. They feared the gruesome spectacle might compromise his ability to rule. There were those, some for selfish reasons, that considered putting a regent on the throne until senior nobility deemed Alain was ready to claim the crown. Alain dismissed these ideas and set about the process of rebuilding his kingdom just as his father and grandfather had done before him.
Shortly after his ascension to the throne, Alain was able to expand trade into and out of Tharo through shrewd negotiations and clandestine diplomacy. This was a key aim of his predecessors. As a result, the new monarch was able to swell the kingdom’s coffers and increase the strength of his military. The population on the manors also benefited from this surplus as increased revenues allowed Alain to lower taxes on the underclass he relies on for the kingdom’s food and water supply. Both of these acts have made Alain very popular with the average Rendan citizen, a popularity that has concerned a nobility once gleefully content to make themselves fat through the gross exploitation of the Rendan people.
© Kevin Beck Games 2020
Opinions? Comments? Ways to make the map more realistic? Thanks to all!
Geography
The feudal kingdom of Renda, once known as Suuri vanha valtakunta, the great old kingdom in the ancient tongue, lies on the westernmost reaches of The Nineteen Kingdoms, a region of feudal nations located on the northern part of the Odrian continent. Renda encompasses about 8250 square miles and borders the Shannic Ocean directly to the south, the kingdom of Vorai to the southeast, the River Halla and the barbarian nation of Darwar to the north, and finally the Forgotten Forest directly to the east and north of Vorai.
Tharo, Capital of Renda
The great trading city of Tharo is the capital of Renda. Tharo is located on an island just off the western coast of mainland Renda. In the present day, Tharo is the major trading center in all of the western kingdoms. Three major trading routes converge on the city and Renda benefits greatly from the trade that occurs there year-round. There are five other major trading towns in Renda, four along the trade routes emerging from Tharo and one located just outside the Kalkov Hills in central Renda. All of these towns have a major economic and political impact on Renda but Tharo is the true center of power in the kingdom.
History
The kingdom of Renda can trace its various royal lines back 1500 years. In the beginning of this history, a barbarian known as Tharo the Beast came to power by winning many tribal warriors from the ancient bloodlines of the Kestri to his side. Together they conquered all that opposed them and set up a city Tharo named after himself. Over many generations, Renda grew in power and influence, once controlling all of the western kingdoms, spanning nearly 50,000 square miles of land. Since that time Renda has suffered many setbacks and over the last two centuries the kingdom has lost much of the territory it once claimed. There are many incidents in Renda’s history that historians point too as reasons for the kingdom’s decline. The wisest of these scholars point to one event being the singular most significant. This event is framed by an ill waged war of expansion remembered only for the swath of death and despair it caused.
Two hundred years ago the Rendan king Igsnar the III, more infamously known as Igsnar the Hideous, attempted to conquer all kingdoms of that time in a war of vile aggression. This conflict caused the torturous deaths of thousands in needless acts of wanton bloodshed. It was in this war that Renda lost much of its land, honor and power. Igsnar's butchery put a stain on Renda that still exists to the current time. To this day kingdoms affected by Igsnar’s merciless armies use his name in the vilest of curses. Igsnar’s actions have placed a foul mark on Rendan history that can never be erased but despite a drastic reduction in territory and status after the conflict, Renda has slowly repaired its reputation and standing among the other kingdoms as time has passed. This is due to the work of the last two kings after Igsnar and the current efforts of a relative newcomer to the throne.
Alain VII is the current King of Renda. Alain has ruled for the last twenty years since his father Alain VI's reign ended at the hand of his own Queen, the current monarch's deceased mother. Alain's first duty as a young king just into adulthood was to have his own mother beheaded for this treasonous crime. The newly christened monarch stood and watched the execution as it happened. Many in the court did not know what to expect after this event. Those closest to Alain feared the trauma of seeing his mother executed, on his command, might scar him in some unforeseen way. They feared the gruesome spectacle might compromise his ability to rule. There were those, some for selfish reasons, that considered putting a regent on the throne until senior nobility deemed Alain was ready to claim the crown. Alain dismissed these ideas and set about the process of rebuilding his kingdom just as his father and grandfather had done before him.
Shortly after his ascension to the throne, Alain was able to expand trade into and out of Tharo through shrewd negotiations and clandestine diplomacy. This was a key aim of his predecessors. As a result, the new monarch was able to swell the kingdom’s coffers and increase the strength of his military. The population on the manors also benefited from this surplus as increased revenues allowed Alain to lower taxes on the underclass he relies on for the kingdom’s food and water supply. Both of these acts have made Alain very popular with the average Rendan citizen, a popularity that has concerned a nobility once gleefully content to make themselves fat through the gross exploitation of the Rendan people.
© Kevin Beck Games 2020
Comments
A very lovely and clean map - what style? (looks like Jon Roberts with extras) And the legend is great
Quenten is right about the rivers into the lakes. It's just the one coming out of it and heading for the sea (or the next lake in a string of lakes) that should only be just the one.
I only have one suggestion, and even that is only a matter of personal preference. Please ignore it if you like your maps really tidy, but sometimes forests look a little more natural if they thin out towards the edges. With the effects you have on that sheet, however, creating the thinning out by adding small patches around the larger ones might be a little tricky and could make the map look spotty if you go too far, so it is only a suggestion.
It's better than constantly replacing the initial image, which has the disconcerting effect of making the comments underneath it make no sense at all.
Should I get rid of the heraldry? Does it distract from the rest of the map? The map has no borders because almost every border between each earls holdings are always shifting depending on various circumstances.
Must have missed your earlier posting just above this one, but the hex grid there makes it look as if the map is drawn on fish-scaled skin at this level (especially over the land areas). That's not a criticism, by the way, as it looks rather interesting to my eye!
Ok, here is yet another version of the world map for what I originally called the Nineteen Kingdoms. I decided that trying to develop complete histories for all nineteen would be pretty daunting so I narrowed it down to seven. I am actually going to explain in my history how that narrowing happened. What I am looking for here are opinions on how the forests look mixed in with the hills. There is a huge mountain range about nineteen miles east of the eastern end of the map and those hills are the beginnings of it. I believe I have incorporated all the other ideas in previous maps. I have also added some things like islands to expand the possibility of adding cultures like pirates and such. Another big change is that I did not change the scale of the symbols in this map. All symbols are set to the scale that was designed into the style when it was originally developed. I hope you like the revisions.
Looks quite nice. Forests and hills can be difficult to combine since CC3+ don't have a forested hill symbol, but I think the way you did it looks nice.
That's a great map :)
Yes, maybe there is room for forested hills in a style. The trouble is that adding just that one aspect doubles the number of mountain symbols required to make a default set. I will definitely think about it next time I have a look at Spectrum.
About histories.
The thing about history is that it isn't really separate at all. People mix all the time, and they watch each other all the time, so what you have is a kind of giant soap opera that last thousands of years, where one country does something and the others react in their various different ways - if what is done is momentous enough to warrant a reaction. So one history for a world would be ok, in my opinion. I would not expect to see separate histories for each nation.
That is not to be confused with the lies each nation tells itself to be able to live with what their forefathers have done, but that is more about the politics of a world. There is only one history, but countless lies that are told about it depending on who you are and where you were born and grew up.
Here is an updated version of one of my kingdoms. I decided I wanted to add a civilized vs. uncivilized element to my campaign so I designed the map to show that the areas of farmland are claimed by the king while the rest of the land is disputed with both human and orc tribes either fighting over the land or existing in the same space with a high level of tension.
I kept the resolution low for this post but when I'm finished the map will be saved at higher settings. I know the smaller test is almost unreadable at this resolutions. The blue text are the orc tribes while the green text indicates human barbarians. Everything else is claimed by the king and his chosen Earls.
This is the updated version that added 5-10-2021
I really like Jon Robert's Overland. A pity it is limited in symbols
Not sure what the scale is (and a curious contrast having hexes on this map, yet grid squares on the world map), but are all the orc and barbarian tribes really quite so equal as the name-label sizes and placements suggest?
I wasn't even thinking about the grids when I posted this. :) As for the barbarian and orc tribes the labels just indicate where those tribes roam. They are of different sizes. It is a good point though. I could make the text for the more dominant tribes larger like I did for the capital cities.
Nice map! I'm going to have to re-visit that style I think, you've done a great job with it!
As @Monsen said, you've done a great job with the forested hills, you can always scatter some individual tree symbols on top of the hills to heighten the effect but perhaps that's not a look you're interested in.
A couple of styles I used to give the map a different look. I love messing around with the styles.
Spectrum (not complete)
13th Age
Looks nice. I enjoy them both, but I think the 13th age one looks best as they stand right now.
I agree
Yes. Me too :)
13th Age is one of my favourite styles so I'm biased :-)
Here we go again. This is a history bit for the Renda map posted above if anyone wants to read a page of timeline like fiction. I updated it from the previous version. It is full of rolling hills now. I created an Erdan version that I will post when I get home and used Color Key to adjust my Jon Roberts version as well. I know I've said this before but color key is a weapon man. It really allows you to build maps bottom up which is what I prefer.