As these "ghostly" comments may indicate, I'd had a few ideas of my own as to what else could have been happening in the area, partly also drawing on what I'd established for the Sussara Region earlier. One thing I was pretty sure of is that Marshmalika had been the first place attacked when the invaders arrived, given the Bay of Aqesh is a logical landing area, away from the open sea, where storms are more likely, and the most inland section of that would be as good a place as any to begin. I also thought it would be interesting to explore why their main headquarters wasn't on the coast any more, or indeed at an obvious communications centre with a reliable freshwater supply (it's the orange triangle on the Banjar province map in my first post above). Hence the ghosts, which the rank-and-file are most unhappy about. And there are oddly large numbers of poisonous scorpions and snakes where the ghosts are too, which were never found in such profusion previously, or indeed still at other parts away from the old inhabited locations.

So to the small town of Marshmalika itself, or more correctly, its abandoned ruins:

While the style's the same Desert Oasis one as before, other than the sea, I've deliberately muted the choice of other colours here to reflect its ruined status, and had quite a bit of fun creating The Pit and the Pentagram (no, not Pendulum 😉). Hopefully, those will be a little clearer on the higher-res version in my Gallery, and of course, clearer still once in the Atlas. I also chose not to have all the nearby features be on, or fully on, the map, to add to that slightly edgy, uncomfortable feeling, while still keeping it usable as a gaming map. I have to say too, I'm impressed by the versatility of this mapping style, so with just this one Annual issue, it's possible to create a vibrant, living settlement (Sussara Village last time) and an abandoned, ruined one here.

When I started rolling the Inkwell dice sets to generate the base maps for this whole project, I made a few decisions in advance. One was that I wouldn't reuse the same dice-face design twice (I just re-rolled any duplicates), and because I wanted to keep the maps fairly small and manageable, that I'd roll randomly between 2 and 4 dice at a time only. I'd then put together the map based on how the dice fell on the table, once slid together into a whole, naturally. For this "Ruins" set map, I just rolled two dice, and the orange rectangle on this image shows what the dice had set-up:

Most of the major features of the settlement, in fact, as that seemed appropriate. The only real change I made here was that the Temple was originally a group of large, partly or wholly ruined buildings, with trees and an open area in the adjoined block to its right. However, the Desert Oasis style comes with its own ruins, including this one, and it seemed a shame not to use it! The expanded areas were a mix of randomly-rolled options, with logical completions and expansions of roads and trails to fit the landscape around the settlement. Other ruined properties further from the centre aren't shown, as already buried by drifting sand, dust and ash, which is explained in the PDF and text files for the final Atlas version, along with what's going on at the various labelled sites. That House of Bones area is an especially unpleasant reminder that the place was invaded by ruthless folk who cared nothing for the local populace, incidentally (so those sensitive to such things should be warned).

I'm not sure if it's been all this thinking about warfare and ghosts, but my next port-of-call is (as randomly decided) to be on Mate Ora, southernmost of the islands in the Nga-Whenuatoto archipelago, a land where the dead walk, apparently. At least it's still in the southern tropics of Nibirum, so decently warm!

EDIT Feb 3: The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted there were missing internal lines in the Pentagram; images have now been corrected!

@Vir: There are a number of problems involved in understanding climate and how it would behave in circumstances for another planet than Earth with its current layout of continental landmasses, sizes and depths of ocean.

One is we don't really understand how Earth's climate works. There are a lot of theories and models, but many of them fall apart if we try to use them to explain the current Earth in any detail, and/or if we try to use them to explain what we understand about the geological past (this latter is a particularly major problem).

Another is that because we don't properly understand how our own planet's climate operates, when we try to use these theories and models to explain another planet's (and this has happened repeatedly in our own Solar System), they don't really work either.

So the further we get away from the current physical situation for Earth, the more guesswork is involved, essentially. (And there's a lot of guesswork involved in explaining the current situation already!)

Ocean depths different to Earth's create particular uncertainties, as it's clear there are things happening in Earth's deeper oceans that have huge effects planet-wide, but we don't really know why they happen. So when trying to look at a planet like this one, where great areas of the ocean are much deeper over far larger areas than Earth's, it gets to the point of either giving up, or just going with whatever you fancy!

Ocean currents, for example, can flow in completely different directions at different depths - a warm current might be flowing over or under a cold current behaving in this way too. Similar things happen in the atmosphere as well, so while that shouldn't be a surprise, it doesn't mean we really know why things are as they are.

If you need a south to north wind (maybe only seasonally), my advice would be simply invent what seems to you a good reason for why it happens, and if that involves something relating to Earth's climate/weather patterns, possibly only vaguely, just invoke that. If anybody's daft enough to question it, then obviously it's because it's also influenced by the planet's magical field!

If you need ideas based on what happens for Earth, I'd suggest taking a look at places online such as already suggested above here for the geological situation for Earth that's similar to your own planet, with things like the estimates for broad-scale current flows. If you can find a good-quality physical atlas showing similar things for either the past or present (which is a useful definition for "good quality"), that will be just as suitable, dependent on what you prefer.

Thinking further about this, it occurred to me it might be helpful to provide a list of manufacturers that produce, or have produced, downloadable card and paper models, with website links. I'll not pretend this will be fully comprehensive, but it may give some more precise pointers than simply advising people to go and hunt through the OBS sites and CWF. Where not noted, the scale is generally the "standard" 28 mm-32 mm used for most fantasy and science-fiction gaming (which of course isn't a true scale at all, but what can you do?).

Antohammer the Lonely Wargamer: Mostly 2D standee paper minis, with some 2D, 2.5D and occasionally 3D models as well (of terrain features, smaller structures and a few vehicles), fantasy and historical.

Arid Hills Gaming: A limited range of 2D, 2.5D and 3D fantasy and science-fiction gaming terrain and props (e.g. for dungeons and graveyards). Manufacturer has now though switched to 3D printer files only.

Avalon Game Company: Mostly paper minis (plus a massive collection of written RPG accessories, gaming floor tiles, tabletop print-and-play games and accessories), with a limited range of fantasy 2D and 3D scenery, e.g. for dungeons.

Black-Ronin: A small number of 15mm-18mm scale 3D exterior modern buildings and structures, and 2D floorplan textures, intended for historical wargames.

Crooked Staff Publishing: A VAST and increasing range of Pay What You Want texture packs for creating your own scenery. The guy who is the company, Kristian Richards, also produces regular short YouTube videos (59 so far!) on using these to make 2D, 2.5D and 3D models (attaching the texture to various types of card and foamcore first, very often), and has an enthusiastic Discord channel. Although not specific models as such, the PDF file textures could be easily converted and transplanted for personal use in CC3+ to draw specific models using them in Dioramas 3, for instance. The videos are especially to be recommended for new card model builders, and mappers particularly may care to view the, currently 4, "Tiny Terrain" videos, which are in essence 3D hexmaps!

DarekPages: A small, occasionally growing, range of 3D terrain models, some vehicles and 2D minis, for near-future/science-fiction settings (although some items will work for fantasy too), with comprehensive photographic instructions.

Dave Graffam Models: A huge, still growing, range of 3D, mostly exterior-only, models for fantasy and science-fiction settings, with 2D ground tiles as well. Instructions provided with each kit, many of which make heavy use of the PDF layers facility, so each model can be built in a variety of appearances.

Eddnic: All-free, more-or-less unique 3D paper minis, and some 2.5D and 3D fantasy prop models (HeroQuest-style, after the 1980s fantasy boardgame of that name). Not for beginners, as some can be very difficult to make, there are NO instructions, and searching through to find what might be of interest is a challenge in itself (as it's purely a blog site), but the models are often astonishing and - as mentioned - free + unique!

Epic Wargaming also known as Print and Play Fantasy: Primarily wargame-style 2D fantasy standee minis, but there are a couple of 3D models as well, notably a castle on the Wargame Vault site. A major website failure three years back has meant the ranges are still incomplete on the new site, although new minis are produced from time to time. Many of the minis are free, though some are Patreon-only items now.

Fat Dragon Games: A large range of mostly 3D buildings and terrain (for possibly the greatest number of biomes available anywhere in papercrafting), the later models often making use of the PDF layers feature to extend the options for how the final models can appear. Mostly fantasy structures, with some science-fiction, although the natural landscape terrain has many more uses. The owner has switched to 3D printed models only now, so the existing paper-model range is unlikely to expand further.

Finger and Toe Models: A large range of 3D building, structure and vehicle models for fantasy, historical and science-fiction settings. Mostly exterior-only models, and provided with illustrated instructions.

Haunted Dimensions: A host of horror-themed, free, 3D models, games and some minis. The models are chiefly exterior-only, though they do include the Bates and Amityville houses from their respective movies.

Helion & Company: Their Paper Soldiers range of hardcopy and PDF books each contain complete pairs of historical wargame armies of minis, basic rules and usually some 2.5D or 3D terrain features and miniatures, and come with full instructions. Two sets, "European Buildings" and "Castle Assault", are especially heavy on the 3D buildings side!

Hotz Stuff: A range of 1/300 scale historical naval wargame minis, including 3D ship and building/structure models, plus a range of 30 mm (1/60 scale) Wild West buildings and structures. No new items in more than a decade, however.

Kingsway Models: Mostly hardcopy-only OO-scale (roughly 1/76 scale) historical British railway model structures and buildings, with a few free downloadable PDF items. Some 1/43 scale (O gauge) items also available. Print quality on the hardcopy items is often not as good as you would hope, from personal experience, and this is true also of the PDFs.

Lord ZseZse Works: A range of 3D models (as well as lots of 2D ground-tile flats), primarily for fantasy settings, and including some terrain features as well as structures. Also a few 3D vehicles (historical Russian tanks). Unfortunately, after a very successful Elven Papercraft KickStarter campaign in 2014, the company ran into problems delivering all they'd hoped to from that, and although all their models remain available for purchase, no new models are likely, as the owners split-up in 2017.

Mystic Mountain Productions: A modest range of fantasy 3D buildings, mostly exteriors, though some with internal 2D floor plans as well, with comprehensive photographic instructions. Often makes use of PDF layers to enhance the final appearance options. No new models since 2017, however.

Okumarts Games: A large range of mostly 2D standee paper minis, but also produces some 2D, 2.5D and 3D models (dungeons especially in the latter type), mostly for fantasy and science-fiction settings, also some historical minis. Detailed photographic instructions are provided for the models, and the PDFs nearly always make much use of the PDF layers facility.

One Monk (also known as Mayhem in Paper) : Although One Monk produces chiefly 2D standee fantasy minis and a few 3D vehicles, their main website also hosts a huge repository for many free minis and models created over the years by the papercrafting community, in recent years via the Cardboard Warriors Forum's "Monthly Hoard" system, or produced by individuals outside that.

Papercraft Dungeon also known as Kev's Lounge: A range of mostly 2D paper standee fantasy minis, with a small range of 3D structures, the buildings coming with full external and internal artwork. The build mechanics can be complex for the structures, and although photographic instructions are provided, they work better for those with plenty of paper model-making experience. Tending to concentrate chiefly on standee minis only in recent years, however. In addition, not all the models are available via the OneBookShelf sites (the link above), and the owner's site, Papercraft Dungeon, while allowing easy paid-for and free downloads, will only let you download each item in your account a limited number of times - so make plenty of back-up copies!

Papermau: An extensive, very long-running blog, which serves chiefly to highlight some of the many paper model creations freely available across the Internet down the years. The blog's author also makes new, usually 3D exterior-only, models from time to time as well. Being Brazil-based, a few of the blog posts in the past two years have become rather politicised, which may be something to be aware of.

Paper Realms: A large and growing range of 3D exterior buildings, 2.5D/3D subterranean and ruin models for historical and fantasy settings, with some props sets and ground tiles, and some overground 3D terrain models, including options via PDF layers, and instructions.

Papier Schnitzel: A substantial and growing range of mostly historical 3D model structures and ships (Dark Age Europe and Medieval Asia, primarily), usually with full exteriors and interiors, making extensive use of PDF layers, and provided with detailed, photographic instructions.

PERMES: Chiefly a 2D standee minis producer (vast range; historical, fantasy and science-fiction), some of the sets do come with pieces of 2D or 2.5D terrain as well, and a few packs are chiefly of this sort. Instructions are not always provided, so some experience with paper modelling is necessary to get the most from these models.

Ravensblight: The "Toyshop" section has a substantial range of free horror-themed 3D exterior-only buildings, games and vehicles, including full-sized novelty items. Commonly added-to around Hallowe'en in most years, in some cases with RPG/story notes as well, plus separate PDFs with instructions.

Reviresco Tin-Soldier: A small range of mostly exterior 3D model vehicles, structures and buildings, making use of PDF layers to swap things around at times, and with useful, illustrated instructions.

Scalescenes: A growing range of British model railway structures, buildings and some vehicles, available in OO (1/72) and N (1/148) scales and with different exterior texture options (though only one scale, and one texture option, is provided in each paid-for downloadable model). Illustrated instructions come with each kit. Look out too for the free downloadable PDF scale rulers!

Stoelzel's Structures: A large range of highly detailed 3D models with full interiors and exteriors, often with props, and comprehensive instructions, suitable for near-modern and horror settings particularly, with some fantasy items (such as caves and dungeons). PDF layers are not used, so there are commonly huge numbers of pages per PDF, which can make it difficult to keep track of what to print when there are options available. Also relies on the use of foamcore to retain the correct wall thicknesses, so the walls are simply covers for that.

Tinkering Tom: A small selection of 3D building models, fantasy-historical in nature, complete with illustrated instructions.

Wordsworth Model Railway: A substantial range of British OO scale 3D exterior railway model structures and buildings, all free. Also a YouTube channel with a huge number of construction videos. Video 92 is recommended for beginners by the company, as a 10-minute general introduction to making card buildings.

World Works Games: A large range of 3D fantasy, horror and science-fiction model structures, buildings and some vehicles. Unfortunately, the range is no longer supported, so is unlikely to further expand. In addition, the kits are all available only through the company's own website, and it too is not regularly maintained, so in recent years, it has been frequently, and unpredictably, offline for unexplained reasons. As only a limited number of downloads are available from each purchase, be sure to make plenty of extra back-up copies of anything purchased from the site.

The central, main, part of the Palace complex, consists of the Level 1 map(s) above, and the other four earlier "Hive" maps, with suitable amendments:

One major change was the original "Hive" was a single map, with each of the five levels set-up on a separate Layer in that FCW file. Here, each Level is in its own separate FCW file, as that seemed easier to try to keep things properly organised for presenting in the Atlas (although the Level 1 map still works that way, for its variant "Reality" and "Illusion" versions).

As the accompanying descriptive files suggest, the illusory nature of the Palace might be continued for some visitors, as GMs could prefer, throughout an entire visit here. Although no further illusory versions of the maps are provided, the idea is the level maps would be simply inverted, so as to seem that deeper levels below ground were actually higher buildings and towers, with suitable illusory views across the surrounding countryside and neighbouring parts of the Palace. Naturally, none of the locals are deceived by any of this, and now tend to give the place a wide berth, though less because it's really a giant ant colony than because the Queen, while respected as a powerful Faerie creature, isn't the greatest company over any length of time. Plus honey fungus for a meal or two is fine, but not on its own as a regular diet. Unless you're a giant ant, that is.

Which brings us round to the final South Wing, presented as just a single Level. More or less, anyway, as there are a couple of places where the tunnels pass over and under one another, which again helps give a slightly variant appearance to this map. This time, the base layout came from the DF video that actually launched the very first Burrows pieces, as part of their "Dungeons of Doom" KickStarter campaign in June 2017, "Encounter 14: Khri Colony". The Khri are DF's giant insectoid monsters that make such burrows, incidentally. The final amended layout is thus:

A lower height range seemed suitable for the southern side of the Palace complex, given how the surface view sketch was drawn.

So that concludes the extra maps to go with Errynor Map 40, and by the time you read this, I expect I'll be off mapping some far-flung corner of the region or other. Or is it ALL just an illusion...

Having spent much of 2020 preparing detailed maps and descriptions that often took weeks at a time to complete for the Community Atlas, it seemed worthwhile to tackle a less involved map at this stage, for one of the smaller projects I'd long had in mind as part of Errynor Map 01. There, it had the prosaic label of merely "Cave 8", the lair for a giant octopus set among the Peak Corals:

However, for some time, I'd intended to make it a little more than simply an animal lair. Indeed my earlier planning for the maps to add detail to this Map 01 area had included others of the cave lairs elsewhere on it too. As time passed, I'd discarded that prospect as liable to become too similar, either because I'd end up frequently drawing small cave maps, or because I'd be struggling to make each one somehow unique. So this map ended up with a concentration of elements from some of those "cancelled" maps:

As the lair is set among the Peak Corals, it's not quite a "traditional" cave, as much of its entrance area especially has formed over time from gaps in the build-up of dead coral and other debris which has since solidified, with collapses and modifications by the more mobile creatures living on the reefs and within the cave system, along with the effects of nearby sea-bed gas escapes. Hence I decided not to use a mask to hide the outer edges of the walls here, and just let the shadow Effect from them fall where it might onto the normal Background Sheet, as a reminder the "walls" may not be really so defining as they might seem.

The inner parts of the cavern become increasingly weird. Despite being very far from land, in extremely deep water, and where the usual sea-floor rock is the typical once-molten black basalt, much of the cave floor is that of a very ancient, fossilised, swampy land surface, including numerous substantial fossil tree stumps. Once around the sharp angle, those with normal colour vision will be aware of a green light emanating from further north (north is to the right here for once). The origin of this glow is an even more ancient meteorite, embedded in the fossil swamp from when it was still a living swamp. It shines green, and is Not Entirely A Good Thing, shall we say. Its non-visual effects have led to the giant octopus that lairs here becoming tougher, longer-lived, more intelligent, and - as the substantial treasure hoard might suggest - far more acquisitive than others of its ilk. Much of its time, when not out hunting, is spent gazing contemplatively at the meteorite.

Much of the map was created from normal DD3 assets drawn over a random design from the Curufea's Random Cave Map Generator website, with a few tweaks. I did though add a couple of extras from the Mike Schley overland style - the octopus illustration and the compass rose - and labelled the whole using the Mason Serif Bold font that comes with CC3+. Before starting, I'd intended to use a lighting Effect for the meteorite's glow, but soon realised this would be impractical for the map to be useful as a GM's aid, so elected instead to use a simpler fading-glow look for the affected area, using sightlines drawn from the meteorite to establish where the "shadowed" parts of the inner cavern would be.

I added hand-sketched "tree-ring" lines to the tops of the DD3 stalagmites that were repurposed as fossil tree stumps, having already opted for the cooled lava fill texture to stand for the fossil swamp cave floor. The living coral masses outside the cave on the sea-bed were DD3 fungi and trees, including varicolor options, with added glow and transparency Effects to make them less fungal-floral. The overall look was chosen as deliberately near-greyscale and relatively dark, given the water depth here at over 750 metres (2,500 ft) is far below the depth to which sunlight can penetrate, in-keeping with my deep undersea mapping conventions, while hinting, with the limited use of colour, that things are also a little different here. And yes, naturally, the shadows are anomalous, despite being what the eye expects!

As usual, the last part of this "Places" set covers the various roadways appropriate for the group, with four such streets:

The first two have some focal aspects determined by their respective featured texts, though the third, Holloway Dew is a slightly sunken routeway, flanked by dew ponds, except for the large, circular, labelled "Dew Pond" at the street's right-angle turn, which is actually an aquifer-fed lake, not a dew pond at all! The names here are a mix of the almost-ordinary, the nonsensical and the weird, though a couple along Moonshadow Field are intended as mildly humorous, as My Newt, smallest property on this road, is a tiny tavern (apparently - this is Faerie, however), while the Endless Stand Inn originates with the old work-related "task" of sending the new person down to the stores for a long stand... Glittering House adds a bit more magic though, as it's only there so long as the White Moon shines upon it (another of my early literary influences was behind this, Errwood Hall in Alan Garner's novel "The Moon of Gomrath", from 1963).

This first map of the 57 is designed to get visitors into the city from the outside world of the Clack Valley. A comparison with my early sketch for this link-map (shown above) indicates there wasn't much change along the way:

Indeed, its general layout was decided long before any of the other maps in the collection were prepared. However, this final form was among the last to be completed, thanks to needing extracts from some of those others. The frame decoration, as noted, is taken from the CA23 Map Border pack.

In the Atlas version, each of the numbered circles and central wedge-segments, except wedge 8, will link with their appropriate next maps in the Embra set. The outer ring of circles is the connection between the Mortal and Faerie Realms. Each circle leads to its separate Village map, showing how Embra appears from the outside, an appearance which can be different depending on its approach direction. As the names suggest, this outer ring is a compass-rose, representing in order north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west and northwest. GMs can opt to roll a D8, use the party's approach direction, or simply choose one of the Villages, to determine this initial connection. Similarly, when leaving Embra, the last place to be encountered will be one of these eight outer-ring Villages.

Segments 1 to 7 of the inner "pie-chart" connect with their respective "Places" schematic in the City itself, from where individual locations and streets within that type of Place can be accessed and explored. Segment 8 allows a random D8 roll to be used at GM's option to decide where a group may go next, as it provides the re-roll possibility mentioned in my earlier posting here, where the party would then be able to go directly to the Twilight Market from whichever set of Places was finally picked. GMs might alternatively decide by preference, or using the magical Law of Similarity, to select the next location instead. For example, if the party opened a gate to enter a field in whichever Village or Place they were in, by Similarity, they could then go to somewhere from the Enclosed Places selection. Had they been crossing a stream, they could have gone to one of the Crossing Places, and so on.

This is not necessarily all obvious from just the Official Guide schematic, and although there are PDF and text notes with the Atlas map, I felt it would be helpful to add some short comments to the map itself. By chance, the February 2022 issue of the Cartographer's Annual was published while this map was being finalised, providing an ideal opportunity to make use of one of its key elements as "The GM's Little Red Book". The full Official Guide map then, looks like this:

As mentioned a couple of days ago, aside from the mapping, I've also been pulling together the notes to accompany this set of maps, so for those who might be interested to know more in advance, here are the general comments from the start of that file, as drafted to date.

No one is quite sure who or what the Winter Queen really is. The rare tales mentioning her suggest she may be a deity or an exceptionally powerful, probably immortal, perhaps Faerie, creature. Few such tales give useful details on her nature, though many cultures in the higher northern and southern latitudes of Nibirum preserve variants or fragments of the stories, where the Queen has numerous alternative, typically apotropaic, local titles. It is clear she is thought to possess great magic, much exceptionally obscure knowledge, and a considerable burden. Humanoid in form, she appears as very tall (around 8 or 9 feet high; 2.4 to 2.7 metres), dressed in a long, hooded robe, with piercing blue eyes, bearing a long white staff or crook taller than she is, and an air of great sadness. Her clothing and physical features are said to alter subtly from one day to the next.

She cannot leave the Palace, and has no control over where it goes, as the Palace moves magically, and instantly, once a day to a new location. It is said to be never in exactly the same place twice, but its location is always in an icy, remote, spot, concealed below the surface. Its solitary entrance, while small and hard to find, has no door (there are no doors throughout the Palace), and can be recognised by the profusion of perfect representations of summer flowers and foliage all around it, made of crystal-quality ice. This summer array of perfect specimens is astonishingly beautiful, all of which objects are very fragile. Damaging any is a swift way to raise the Winter Queen's ire, something the tales strongly warn against.

Wherever the Palace alights and for fifty miles around (eighty kilometres), the weather worsens and turns wintry, if it was not winter when it landed. Sometimes, it settles in the clouds, where it stirs them to winter storms, pouring hail and snow down to the surface beneath in icy gales. Even then, the Palace remains deeply hidden by the clouds, for all it still has its ice-flower-surrounded single entrance.

While some tales allude to it, one reality about the Palace is that the souls of all who have died recently in the frozen places of the world, and all those who have died from cold elsewhere, must pass through it on their way from wherever they were to wherever they may be going. A few may linger in the Palace for a time, and some may become temporary guests or servants of the Winter Queen. The Queen has no control over which may stay or move on immediately, however. She frequently converses with those passing through even so, from which much of her secret knowledge derives. Occasional tales may hint disparagingly that the Queen is merely running a ferry service for the recently deceased.

The Palace changes its form whenever it moves, never the same twice, though always in plan-view having the shape of a gigantic snowflake, with walls, floor and ceiling composed entirely of solid, if at least slightly translucent, crystal-like ice. This is always beautiful, with glittering facets like gems that reflect light on or just within the solid ice surfaces. Somehow, light palely manages to illuminate the whole interior with a soft radiance, no matter how deeply buried the Palace may appear to be. At times, rainbow-coloured beams, arcs and spots may be seen, like haloes in the outdoor sky that are created by refraction of sunlight through tiny hexagonal ice-crystals in thin, high-altitude, clouds. Sometimes such light effects may become dazzlingly bright briefly. The ice walls, floors and ceilings reflect light as well, which in places can take on a mirror-quality surface. Such mirrors can allow glimpses of past or future events and places, memories left by the passing spirits, perhaps. The Winter Queen does have some control over such light, vision, visionary and illusory effects within the Palace.

Queen and Palace are so inseparable because in essence, they are parts of the same thing. Many of the Queen's "servants" are actually living ice-constructs which appear from, and can return into, the inner ice surfaces of the Palace as required, thus too are simply another element of this whole being.

Along the way, I let myself get a bit distracted, and decided a CA3 portrait of the Winter Queen might be an interesting addition to the map set, with a hint of the SS2 Bitmap A Snow Frozen Lake fill texture for the border design, which thanks to the standard CA3 bevel effect, looks rather like fine marble now:

She's intended to be between 8 and 9 feet tall in (imaginary) reality, 2.4-2.7 metres.