I really like the way you combined the compass rose with the scale bar - it looks very elegant that way, to me.

Looking back at the process of building my world, Sihjul, I can't believe it's been 14 years… Unfortunately, the amount of development I've actually gotten put up doesn't reflect the number of years it's been percolating 😁. I start, go strong for a week or a month, then stop, only to pick it up again a week or a month - or a few months - later. And when I pick it back up it's often because I've had an idea for development, then as I work up that idea other things already in progress get reworked. It's FAR more developed in my mind than it is on "paper."

Sihjul started as a mapping exercise, which then began to spark worldbuilding ideas. I've put the world map up here on the forums before, so I won't post it in this thread, but clicking the link below will take you to the site where Sihjul currently lives. There is a world map (which can be zoomed in on significantly) as well as an animated globe linked toward the bottom of the home page, as well as links to everything I'm currently working on there.

At first my intention was to try to publish it as a setting for one or more game systems, but a friend has been encouraging me to use it as a setting for short stories or novels. Some parts are far more fleshed out than others, and there are some parts (including areas on the map) that are hidden away from eyes other than my own so that they can be discovered later, assuming I ever push this forward to publication of any sort.

Sihjul Homepage | World Anvil

Great map - I'm a huge fan of your style and have borrowed often :D

And much like Don Anderson, the use of Maidhc for Maidic's Steel Reef Divers is on point as well - I was a swimmer in high school and college! Great stuff!

Hah! I only wish I could do art like that! The maps are mine, the pictures are AI generated. I do really try for a unified look as far as style in the art, which takes a lot of finagling of the wording in the AI request and lots of "re-do's." Also, a lot of photoshopping to get the dimensions correct, blend different pics, etc.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

Agreed! I love Profantasy both for the quality of the software and - more importantly - for the quality of the care they take of their customers. Can't be beat!

I made a start on mapping Area 14 of Dunor, the neighborhood/street Faeridge.

Still to come - Legend and labels, scale bar, compass rose, etc. I've got to decide on building purposes and names, too.

Comments, suggestions, etc. are welcome and eagerly awaited!

Got the floor and walls for Rhew knocked out today. For me, this is the easy part. Just like with city maps, I struggle with the trappings so the difficult part comes next.

The general idea is that the portal from the cold/hot island in Alarius will open into the large circular room in the corresponding side of the dungeon. Travelers then move from there through the dungeon to the smaller circular room. Each room in that trip prepares a different part of them (body, mind, spirit?) for the move from one small circular room to the other. They then make the reverse trip from small circle to large, being prepped along the way for the transportation through the portal in the large circle room to the island at the other end of Alarius. So it's a faster way to travel from one end of Alarius to the other, but the trials involved in moving through the process make it difficult, and not a journey to be taken lightly.

I made a little progress on this over the last couple of days. I've got the "Tân" floor and walls finished, and the colors seem pretty good to me. It's really interesting how much interaction there is between the bitmap fills and the RGB matrix. My eyes don't distinguish fine differences in shade well, but to me the ornate tile fill I used has the right brick red color. Changing to a more solid stone fill made them so dark red they were almost black, and to a lighter natural stone fill made them very pink. Lots of trial and error was involved here :).

I'm debating with myself about the level of subtle vs. in-your-face of the yin-yang aspect of the map. Most subtle would be no RGB on the background at all, relying solely on the shape of the rooms to convey that shape. The most heavy handed presentation would be, of course, to leave the extra background and foreground sheets with the shape actually drawn out (as in the pic below). Maybe the proper course will come clearer to me once I get the rooms drawn for "Rhew."

Thanks - I put it here as well as in my own thread ;)