Here you are a map encompassing the area of Mystara where are set nearly all the adventures and modules. I added as much location tags as possible in order to have a general reference map similar to the "world maps" of other settings :
(the image below is a very low resolution pic: to see and download the hi-res version click the link below)
http://it.geocities.com/lutetius2/Mappe2/Mystara40perc_names_08.jpg
Notes:
- I did not wrote many names in the most crowded areas (the Known World and the Savage Coast): I hope that the selection I made is enough anyway.
- Names in green come from offcial supplements but their placement on the map is not official. I placed the tags in what I consider to be the most suitable locations.
- The Equator, the Northern Tropic and the Arctic Circle positon are wrong. Do not use them as a reference.
If you have any suggestion about moving/adding new tags you are welcome!
Have a little patience and try again later: I'm confident that the map will be visible again soon.
Where did you get the original blank map from? I quite like it!
I've searched for info on the Manacapuru (on Davania) but can't find anything. Who/What are they?
Where did you get the original blank map from? I quite like it!
I made it. ;)
It is a very heavily edited version of a scan of the original Companion / Master set maps.
Other people asked for the original blank map, too, so I think it's time to make it available for everybody: Let me do a couple of modifications and it will be on the board in a short time!
The original .bmp version is quite heavy (approx. 11 Mb), maybe I'll post it in a zipped format along with a lighter .jpg version.
I mapped most of Mystara with this technique (see for example my posts about Vulcania and the Sea of Steam in the Vaults), maybe it would be nice to publish all the white blank maps.
I've searched for info on the Manacapuru (on Davania) but can't find anything. Who/What are they?
They are showed on the PWAII map: they should be some kind of jungle savages with an Oltec ancestry; in my opinion they should be barbarians who live in the ruins of some early Milenian province.
Some short info about them are in PWAII and PWAIII ("Davania" entry). PWAIII hints that the Milenian olive skin might be the result of a mixing between the Traldar and some Manacapuru-like people.
Possibly the VotPA also refers to them in the first episode (when the Princess Ark flies upon the Jungle Coast) but the location of the encounter is in a different position with respect to Manacapuru so maybe it refers to another savage tribe of the Jungle Coast.
I actually came across an earlier version of this map somewhere on the web some time ago by random search. I am quite sneaky. Anyway I have been drooling over it ever since.
Some random thoughts:
* What first caught my attention was the inclusion of the Blackmoor-related locations in the northeast (Skothar). It is awesome to see them marked off like this. Heck, they can even provide some idea for what is happening over there these days, or what artifacts may be buried in those areas...
* I also note that you have included your locations for Vacros and Cathos as you suggested not long ago. I am leaning towards accepting these as official now.
* Split-Land River should be Landsplit River. ;)
* The Dark Wilderness near the Sylvan Realm, is that related to the lands where Moorkroft came from?
* Where exactly are the areas from Tortles of Purple Sage?
* Is the name Cape Maud official?
* Is anything known about Orol Island? IIRC the Sky God worshipped on the Isle of Dread had a name reminiscent of that... I am also trying to figure out where this island was in the Blackmoor era. It may have been one of the islands explored by the Skandaharians...
BTW: Great initiative! You are showing the right spirit here. We should in no way lay down and give up!
Havard
I actually came across an earlier version of this map somewhere on the web some time ago by random search. I am quite sneaky. Anyway I have been drooling over it ever since.
Actually this is an updated version (I made the last changes yesterday night, so you'll find for sure some differences with your).
I've never tought about the fact that you can easily reach the original articles from elsewhere in the web!
I don't want to torture you: if you have any request about other maps (maybe in Italian) you are interested in and tthat are not yet posted here please don't hesitate!
* Split-Land River should be Landsplit River.
Ooops... Right, I'll correct it at the next update. ;)
* The Dark Wilderness near the Sylvan Realm, is that related to the lands where Moorkroft came from?
The area beyond the Sylvan Realm is described as a "dark wilderness" by the gold dragon Kharendaen in the first book of the Dragonlord Trilogy. In CM7 Moorkroft's army is called "the Dark Horde", so I made a connection between the two.
To be honest, the Trilogy refers to the whole area from the Sylvan Realm to Wendar as a dark wilderness, but it seemed to me too large an extension. I preferred to limit the place name to the plains just east of the Sylvan Realm.
In the trilogy it is said that the dark wilderness are inhabited by savage elves and humans (and unspecified monsters) who do not have any major settlement, nor trade. Considering that the DT is set in AC 500 and that Moorkroft conquer the Sylvan Realm in AC 600 I think that it would be nice to have Moorkroft as the main "civilizer" of the wilderness. He might have come from Glantri sometime between the VI and the VII centuries AC bringing knowledges, magics and techniques unknown to the savage people of the land, easily enlaving them and estabilishing the first true kingdom of the area by putting together humanoids and wyvern-rider humans. It would explain how he managed to be revered by his minions and to become the prominent villain of NW Brun.
* Where exactly are the areas from Tortles of Purple Sage?
The ancestral tortle breeding lands are the Dry Flats, just SW of the Bylot Hills. Here tortle families migrate to bury their eggs in the warm sand of the flats and wait for their growth. When tortle kids are born the whole population comes back to the coast. I think you can assume that tortles inhabits the whole plains from the Trident Bay to the Bylot Hills (plus the Savage Coast, of course: in SC it is said that they started settling in the Savage Coast more or less at the same time of the fall of Nithia). Snappers should inhabit the Trident Bay, instead, possibly along its Eastern Coast.
EDIT: I realize just now that you made me another question: the places described in Tortle of Purple Sage are included in the rectangle between the Bylot Hills (E) and Cropland (W) and between the Dry Flats (N) and the Mud-Water Cove (S). Most of the place names in this area come from this supplement.
* Is the name Cape Maud official?
Yes. I think it is shown in a HW set polar map.
* Is anything known about Orol Island? IIRC the Sky God worshipped on the Isle of Dread had a name reminiscent of that... I am also trying to figure out where this island was in the Blackmoor era. It may have been one of the islands explored by the Skandaharians...
Unlukily we have only its name, from a HW set polar map. Nothing more is said about this place. In my opinion the area was for sure explored by Skandaharians (and also by Blackmoorians in a later time, when they settle in Brun and crusade against the beastmen) even if at the time of Blackmoor it was possibly part of the land bridge between Brun and Skhotar (see also the HW pre cataclysmic map).
The island might keep Blacmkmoorish relics, or it might be a point of passage/breeding place/sacred place for the beastmen. Moreover Zendrolion noticed some days ago that in the HW random encounters table gold dragons are mostly found near to the polar openings. Maybe the island could be made a sanctuary for this kind of dragons (something like Dragonwatch Keep).
On the last note, IIRC the AC9 (the "Dragon and Giants" supplement) speaks about some meeting points for the various dragon breeds: what if Orol island is the meeting point of white dragons?
Sky god's name in X1 was Oloron.
BTW: Great initiative! You are showing the right spirit here. We should in no way lay down and give up!
The show must go on... ;)
Actually this is an updated version (I made the last changes yesterday night, so you'll find for sure some differences with your).
I've never tought about the fact that you can easily reach the original articles from elsewhere in the web!
Hehe, as I said I am sneaky. ;)
Updated versions are always better ofcourse. Also I was waiting for you to post this so I'd have a chance to discuss it with you (and others).
I don't want to torture you: if you have any request about other maps (maybe in Italian) you are interested in and tthat are not yet posted here please don't hesitate!
Cool!
Well, I remember you posting a similar map to this one showing migration movements of Brun. Do you have something similar for Davania or Skothar? This is somethin I would love to see. Maps in Italian arent that hard to understand actually so if you don't have time to translate right away that shouldnt matter too much.
The area beyond the Sylvan Realm is described as a "dark wilderness" by the gold dragon Kharendaen in the first book of the Dragonlord Trilogy. In CM7 Moorkroft's army is called "the Dark Horde", so I made a connection between the two.
To be honest, the Trilogy refers to the whole area from the Sylvan Realm to Wendar as a dark wilderness, but it seemed to me too large an extension. I preferred to limit the place name to the plains just east of the Sylvan Realm. In the trilogy it is said that the dark wilderness are inhabited by savage elves and humans (and unspecified monsters) who do not have any major settlement, nor trade.
Yeah, this makes sense. I agree in limiting this realm to a smaller area, though I am sure other regions of central Brun may also be wild and dark...
Savage elves are fun, but could they be overdone? It would be nice to see other races in this region as well...
I remember from your migrationary map that I mentioned above that you had the Ethengars historically travelling through this region as well. Might that justify Ethengar-ish realms in this region?
IIRC some fan material place M-Hungarian peoples somewhere on central Brun. Hungarians (and Bulgarians) are supposedly descendants of horseman nomads, so maybe there could be a connection there?
Considering that the DT is set in AC 500 and that Moorkroft conquer the Sylvan Realm in AC 600 I think that it would be nice to have Moorkroft as the main "civilizer" of the wilderness. He might have come from Glantri sometime between the VI and the VII centuries AC bringing knowledges, magics and techniques unknown to the savage people of the land, easily enlaving them and estabilishing the first true kingdom of the area by putting together humanoids and wyvern-rider humans.
.
Yeah that makes sense. Wasn't there a series of Moorkrofts? Having them hail from Glantri and be civilizers of the region over the last 5 centuries sounds good in any case.
It would explain how he managed to be revered by his minions and to become the prominent villain of NW Brun
This is just an awesome sentence
The ancestral tortle breeding lands are the Dry Flats, just SW of the Bylot Hills. Here tortle families migrate to bury their eggs in the warm sand of the flats and wait for their growth. When tortle kids are born the whole population comes back to the coast. I think you can assume that tortles inhabits the whole plains from the Trident Bay to the Bylot Hills (plus the Savage Coast, of course: in SC it is said that they started settling in the Savage Coast more or less at the same time of the fall of Nithia). Snappers should inhabit the Trident Bay, instead, possibly along its Eastern Coast.
EDIT: I realize just now that you made me another question: the places described in Tortle of Purple Sage are included in the rectangle between the Bylot Hills (E) and Cropland (W) and between the Dry Flats (N) and the Mud-Water Cove (S). Most of the place names in this area come from this supplement.
Thanks for the information on this.
Orol Island:
Unlukily we have only its name, from a HW set polar map. Nothing more is said about this place. In my opinion the area was for sure explored by Skandaharians (and also by Blackmoorians in a later time, when they settle in Brun and crusade against the beastmen) even if at the time of Blackmoor it was possibly part of the land bridge between Brun and Skhotar (see also the HW pre cataclysmic map).
Yeah that makes sense.
The island might keep Blacmkmoorish relics, or it might be a point of passage/breeding place/sacred place for the beastmen. Moreover Zendrolion noticed some days ago that in the HW random encounters table gold dragons are mostly found near to the polar openings. Maybe the island could be made a sanctuary for this kind of dragons (something like Dragonwatch Keep).
On the last note, IIRC the AC9 (the "Dragon and Giants" supplement) speaks about some meeting points for the various dragon breeds: what if Orol island is the meeting point of white dragons?
Plenty of good ideas here. I might avoid the traditional Blackoor artifacts here, since Blackmoor proper is close enough to send the PCs there should you want them to find something like that. Ancient Skandahar artifacts could be more interesting. I also really like the idea of having this be the main meeting grounds of the White Dragons.
Sky god's name in X1 was Oloron.
Hmm...I guess that might be too far off to make a connection there.
The show must go on... ;)
Exactly!
Havard