A few tweaks, including increasing the size of the wormhole and adding a glow.

Here's the inside of ones of the hag's caves. Outside, you'll see her cauldron over a fire pit along with some gruesome trophies: skulls and scalps on pikes. (Also added bed a of fungi outside). Bones dumped in a heap in the opening area. "Bedroom" area off to the left -- the bed is just a pile of dried leaves. Some cells for captives (fresh meat!) with grasping vines to keep captives "shackled" and carnivorous roots barricading the doorways. And in the middle, steps going down...

Oh, and I reduced the opacity of the drawn shadow to 40%, hoping that will make it less "floaty."

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.

I decided against trying to "erode" the levels of the ziggurat. It was a lot to change, and I decided that I will keep the technique in mind next time I do one. Instead, I focused on adding layers of the sand texture to each level of the temple (except for the top portion that the priests are more diligent about sweeping). I tried to vary the patterning by starting drawing from different corners, but I'm not sure that helped much. I might alternate which of the sand textures are used, as I did set each to different scalings. I like the color and scaling of #4 the best but I really should change it a little so you don't see angled paths of no sand like on the north face.

I also added the edge of a mountain using the same techniques as the dunes, but with the bevel isn't smoothed as much, and I used a dark brown earth fill. Maybe I should move the mountain to the NW or NE corner?

I agree for the same reason: seeing more of the tower. I changed the varicolor to be a slightly darker yellow.

Here are a few more options. Top left is from DD3 Creatures (tried to make it look like it was crawling up the tower), top right is from CA15 Heraldic Symbols, and the bottom two are from Shessar's heraldic symbols (dragon on left, wyvern on right). I'm leaning towards Shessar's wyvern in the lower right.

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.

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?)

Working on the Swamp Hags' lair now.

A year ago for Halloween, I did a series of maps experimenting with creating a swamp witch's lair using three styles: Dungeons of Schley, Marine Dungeons, and Forest Trail. Of the three, Marine Dungeons was my favorite. This time, I decided to experiment with using Darklands City, because I love the green hue of the water effects. I wasn't happy with how it was turning out, so I experimented with using Creepy Crypts, with some of the sheet effects on Darkland City's water brought over.

But I still wasn't happy, so I went back to Marine Dungeons. Last time I used Marine Dungeons for a swamp, I had to play with the sheet effects on the water to give it a swampy vibe. This time, I discovered right away that simply changing the background from the lovely tropical beach sand to a more muddy earth color immediately changes the water, too. This doesn't change any of the sheet effects, it just changes the background from Marine Dungeon's sand to the CA181 Dirt 03 from Forest Trail.

This also makes use of symbols and effects from Creepy Crypts, Forest Trail, and Darklands City (plus tentacles from Sinister Sewers because I wanted the green tentacles). This is a battlemap view with the treetops hidden so you can battle beneath the branches.

This is still a work in progress. Among other things, I need to add tons more trees on the land and in the water, plus more dirt and vegetation patches. And lots more algae.

There are three hags in the swamp hags' coven. Each has her own thatch cottage elevated on pillars, and then the slightly larger thatched cottage in the southeastern side is their ritual room. The hags use ladders to get into their private quarters, but the ritual room also has stone steps descending into the swamp water. You can also see the bone bridge connecting this area to the teleportation portal.

Here's the teleportation portal (from Creepy Crypts). I was going to add the glow symbol from DD3 but the effect wasn't as subtle as I wanted, so I drew a purple polygon on a sheet with an inner edge fade that goes from 0% opacity at the edges to 40% in the center. I may redraw it with a longer radius. (The purplish dots are will-o'-wisps.)

And here are the "prisons" for the hags' captives. Muddy pits contained by low walls (about one foot off the ground) where victims are submerged halfway up their chests. The tentacles keep them restrained and also fight off rescuers, but their suctions also administer a low-dose poison that keeps the captives asleep most of the time.

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.)