I just noticed that although I posted my completed map in the competition thread, I didn't post an image of it here. Doing that now, just so this thread shows the full process.

I have wanted to use Mike Schley's elven treehouse symbols ever since I started mapping with CC3+, so I am delighted to finally have had the opportunity. (My friend keeps calling this map -- especially because of the elevated pathways -- my Ewok Village.)

What a cool idea for a thread! I've been working on the lore for my world for five or six years, but it's been less than six months that I've finally started to learn Campaign Cartographer, so I don't have a lot of maps to go with the lore.

But here's a map of a Greco-Roman inspired temple (more images in one of my galleries), and the lore to go with it:

This religion is loosely inspired by Greek/Roman mythology -- temples are in that style, and the gods are depicted in art wearing tunics and togas, even though the populace doesn't wear that kind of attire anymore. I will give you a condensed overview. In the pantheon, there are eight major gods who are consorted couples that rule over the four spirit realms: the heavens, the seas, the land, and the underworld. Iliós, the Sun God, is the god of thunder and lightning, battle and war. His consort, Vasilissa, is the goddess of governance, law, and civilization. Together with their adult children they reside in a palace of gold and fire, called Aurinko, which traverses the sky as the sun. The gods of the sea are Thálassi, god of salt water and oceans, and Révma, goddess of freshwater lakes, rivers, and streams. They reside in Helmi, a spherical palace carved from a giant pearl that traverses the oceans of the seas and the skies as the moon. The gods of the land are Thirío, god of animal life on the earth, and Iouloúdia, goddess of plant life. The live in Trypóno, a palace on earth most often shown as being nestled in a hallow of a giant oak tree. The gods of the underworld are Dikastís, the Judge, Adjudicator of Souls, and his wife Éleos, goddess of mercy. They live in Kólasi, an icy, gloomy palace in the underworld. It is said that evil sinners are punished in Kólasi when they die until they are allowed to reincarnate to try again. The spirits of ordinary folks reside in Helmi until they reincarnate. The most heroic are brought to Aurinko to reside with the gods for eternity. (This is a very condensed version that doesn't go into the details of the twelve lesser gods who are their children.)

This temple is meant to worship the entire pantheon. Outside, the barbecue pits are used by temple priests to sacrifice offerings to the gods (great bulls, stags, sheep, and other animals). The gods "feast" on the aromas and then the earthly remains are served to the poor. The pool in front is meant to honor the gods of the sea. The lion statues on the stairs represent the gods of the land, as does the bronze inlaid tree symbol inside the temple. At the peak of the temple is a statue representing the gods of the heavens. In front of the temple there are double rows of eight columns, representing the eight principle deities. There are 17 columns on the sides (in the Greek style of double the front columns plus one.) Inside the temple, which has two giant statues representing Iliós and Vasilissa, there are four niches, each decorated with mosaics representing the four spirit realms: Aurinko, Helmi, Trypóno, and Kólasi. These mosaics are made from luminescent crystals that shed colorful light -- you can see reflections from these mosaics in the second image above.

That's a super condensed synopsis of one of my world's religions (and one of the two principle religions in the main kingdom that will be a starting point). I'm still in "learning and experimenting" mode with CC3 and haven't designed a whole lot of maps to go with the rest of the lore yet.

Made some good progress, including labeling some of the primary businesses and points of interest. I also widened it a bit to make room for a legend. The text was a little hard to read so I added a semi-transparent back. Let me know if it's still too hard to read, and what you'd recommend to help that (make the back less transparent? darker or lighter shade?)

Ralf does demonstrate it at the end of this "Fractal Terrains to Parchment World" tutorial (around the 38 minute mark), using a full world Parchment Map that he had created the week before.

Realized I didn't have any stains or scum, so added a bit. Really love how this template includes so many different effects options for adjusting the coloring.

I played around with Edge Fade settings on the TERRAIN ROCK sheet and settled on an Edge Width of 4 units, an Inner Opacity of 100%, and an Outer Opacity of 25%. (In comparison, the grass, earth, and other textures have a width of 15 units, an Inner Opacity of 100%, and an Out Opacity of 0%.)

Here's how it looks full size, plus a few coastal zooms.

Okay, here's a first pass at the portion of the map I've adopted for the Community Atlas. This was done using the Spectrum Overland style. So far, this is mostly just terrain converted from the parent map.

I want to add more individual trees around the edges of the forests where they look too squared off. I still need to add rivers (this map only came with one in the bottom right), and if necessary, more hills or small mountains at the source of the rivers.

This map came with five settlements. At this scale (each grid square is 100 miles), should I keep the beveled dots from the parent map or use the lovely Spectrum Overland symbols? I created a diamond-shaped one (on the larger island) for other points of interest. (I'm thinking that island may be a resort playground for the rich and famous, like a cross between Monte Carlo and Las Vegas, that operates outside of the reach of the country's law enforcement.)

I wasn't thrilled with how the savannah/grasslands blur into the desert on the right. I may need to adjust the sheet effects. I also thought about encircling the desert with dunes. I did it half of it that way so you can see it with and without the dunes. Thoughts? Oh, and I need to add some saguaro cacti or joshua trees.

I'd like to add a swamp somewhere. I plan to add a henge at one of the northern forests, surrounded by more trees -- that's where elves live. And a dwarven fortress in one of the southern mountains.

Roads will come last, once I've determined the rivers, major settlements, and points of interest, and then need to connect them.

Advice welcome, including the name.

I finally have a bit to show for my contribution to the Community Atlas Competition. More work is needed but it's enough to provide the gist.

I adopted a little farming village on the edges of Verinress'Arl on Artemisia. The parent map's notes explain that Verinress'Arl is populated by Aeifa (surface dwelling drow), who are ruled by a Matriarch, where succession is by fight to the death among her female offspring. The red box here (northeast of center) shows the village in relation to the rest of the kingdom:

The village was once the site of a military outpost, but when it was decommissioned generations ago, a village grew up and took over some of the surviving military facilities: a small fortress that became the village jail, and a tower atop a hill that was purchased by sorceress to live out her years of retirement. The tower was passed down to one of her apprentices, and so on through the generations.

While the villagers are mostly self-sufficient, raising enough of a variety of crops to sustain the village, it's known for its fruit orchards and even more for its vineyards and the wines that are popular throughout the realm.

Here's the village so far (I also put a copy in my gallery if you want to zoom around):

Still more to add within the area protected by the palisades, and forests to the north/northeast.

Here's a closer view of the hillside known locally as "the rock" (though a proper name will be provided on the map):

In addition to the sorceress' tower on top of "the rock," there are three other buildings the dig into the hillside. On the south/southeast, a decommissioned military fort has been converted into facilities for the village watch, with jail cells built underground in the hillside. On the eastern side, the Temple also digs into the hillside where the crypts and religious records/artifacts are maintained. And on the north side, the winery (which may be a bit oversized, now that I see it) also extends into the hillside, where wine can ferment in giant vats in caverns protected from the heat of the sun.

The government buildings include the City Clerk's office in the center, with the courthouse to the east, the mayor's office to the northeast, and the town council chambers to the northwest.

Here's an example of treehouse housing. More smaller complexes like this will be built elsewhere within the palisades.

Outside of the village walls on the southwest side is a large pond. There are some industries along the creek that exits the pond: a small mill, blacksmith, tanner's, and glassblowers. North of them is a hillside and field that have become an entertainment area. A large bonfire is lit most warm nights, where the villagers make music and dance. There's also a stage where traveling minstrels, troubadours, and traveling acting troupes can perform for the villagers who can sit on stone benches before the stage or on the hillside behind. The big building on the northeast side of the pond is the community baths (elves are stereotypically fastidious, after all).

Much more to come, but since it's officially August, I wanted to post what I have to date to start getting feedback.

I've been playing around with Wyvern's great suggestions.

I tried to give the ziggurat a more weathered look by using the FRACTALIZE command. The default settings were way off but I played with it enough to think that with time, I could get it to look right. The problem was that I tried it on a single layer of the temple, and even with just that single layer, it added so many nodes that it slowed everything way down -- and that was just the first of eighteen levels of the temple! So I think my temple won't look weathered after all. Maybe the gods are preserving it. ;-)

Then I hid the desert symbols so that I could play with the different textures and effects to create the illusion of dunes. The Dungeons of Schley style has five sand fills (with 1 being the lightest) and five corresponding partially transparent textures to overlay. The main background in my map was the middle one, Sand 3_SS4. Over the entire map, I also added the Sand 2 T_SS4 texture on a sheet called SAND TEXTURE 1 BASE, which has an inner edge fade to soften it. I then added another sheet called SAND TEXTURE 2 PATCHES, where I drew patches of the textures 1, 4, and 5 (2 already applied to everything, and 3 being the same as the main sand).

For the dunes, I added another sheet, SAND TEXTURE 3 DUNES. It has three effects: Edge Fade, Inner; Bevel, Lighted; and Blur. I then added dunes, trying with first the Solid 10 fill and then some of the sand ones -- but actually, I kinda think the Sand 3 blends in best.

Here's how it looks:

Here's my Bevel settings:

And here's the FCW:

Thoughts? More dunes? More sand patches? More anything else?

As an aside, learning these desert techniques is very helpful. Last November, one of the first maps I attempted was a Blue Dragon's desert lair. I abandoned it, but I've learned so much in the last six months -- time to revisit it!

I have thoughts on things I'd love to see in future Annuals, but if I mention something that already exists in an older Annual, please advise and I may go buy it!

• Greco-Roman symbols (both City and Dungeon level) - aqueducts, baths, forums, temples, amphitheaters (and at the dungeon level: couches, statues)
• Elven Village (if in a Mike Schley-compatible style, could expand on his elven homes in SS5, or could be totally unique) - tree houses, swan boats and canoes, henges, colorful/exotic flowers and plants, fairy circles, and specialty animals: deer, swans, exotic birds, unicorns, pegasuses (pegasi?), giant eagles and their nests
• Airships - dirigibles, hot air balloons, magical flying ships, Spelljammer-compatible ships
• Academy/University - not sure what this would include, but I will need to design one at some point
• Botanical Garden

If Mike Schley is still doing monthlies:

• Throne Room - thrones, dais, crowns and other regalia (perhaps with pillows to display them on), banners, shields (upright as wall decorations), red (or varicolor) carpets that can be combined into a long strip (or as a fill?), couches or lounge chairs, suits of armor.*
• Library - more bookcase options, more open/closed books, varicolored scroll cases, rolled-up scrolls tied with varicolored ribbon, ink jars with feathered quills.**
• Gnome or Artificer Workshop - though there are some alchemist supplies already
• Mines - tracks, handcarts, pickaxes, individual gems (as opposed to a pile of gems)
• Fairs or festivals - the marketplace symbols have a lot, but I'm thinking about things for performers: juggling pins and balls, musical instruments
• Harbor / Docks / Shipyard - nets, tridents, fish (in open barrels, in piles, and individually), coils of rope

(* With these, I dug through the Mike Schley symbols and found some that could work -- the varicolor "chair ornate" could make for a golden throne, and there's standing armor in weapons. But I haven't found any couches or lounges, just benches and chairs. And there's small area rugs but nothing I saw that could make for a long stretch of carpeting.)

(** The temples and necromancer sets have some of these, though I don't recall seeing feathered quills.)

Also, I have some great photorealistic fills for these sorts of things already, but I'd love more illustrated-style fills for granite, more marble, maybe carpeting?