Morphius’s Malpheggi Swamp, 1 mile per hex
Morphius Shadowleaf was a member of the Mystara Message Board in the 2000s, contributing to various threads over a period of five years or so. His primary contribution to the community is his two works on the Malpheggi Swamp, preserved at the Vaults of Pandius: this map, from May 2003, and a writeup of the area from February 2004.
He was one of the first fans to attempt a map at the 1 mile per hex scale. This had been pioneered by Ann and Paul Dupuis in PC4, but most fan cartographers up until Morphius concentrated on the smaller scales. The tremendous advantage of such a detailed scale is immediately apparent in Morphius’s map, which must surely have been an excellent resource for his campaign.
Sadly, Morphius never released a version of the map with labels or other details. It also does not appear that he referenced James Mishler’s Westerlands, 8 miles per hex map of the area, although I may be mistaken.
Regardless of its incompleteness, this map was an accomplishment, and a milestone for Mystaran cartography. It has been constantly referred to ever since when fans work with the Malpheggi Swamps area.
Fan-made Map by Morphius Shadowleaf (May 2003)
This is an original map created by one of Mystara’s excellent fan cartographers. For more information on the cartographer, including a gallery of all their maps, see also Appendix M: Mappers of Mystara.
The Atlas has been unable to contact the original cartographer. This map therefore appears here without explicit permission from its creator. Any information on how to get in touch with them would be most welcome.
Sources
- GAZ11 The Republic of Darokin (1989) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
Fan Sources
- None…?
References
- All of Morphius’s maps at the Atlas of Mystara
- Morphius’s author page at the Vaults of Pandius
- Malpheggi Swamp from the Mystara Message Board (February 2004) (Vaults of Pandius)
Chronological Analysis
This is a fan-made map. It was published in May 2003. The updated Atlas version of this map is not yet available. See also Appendix C for annual chronological snapshots of the area. For the full context of this map in Mystara’s publication history, see the upcoming Let’s Map Mystara 2003. (Please note that it may be some time before the project reaches this point.)
The following lists are from the Let’s Map Mystara project. Additions are new features, introduced in this map. Revisions are changes to previously-introduced features. Hex Art & Fonts track design elements. Finally, Textual Additions are potential features found in the related text. In most cases, the Atlas adopts these textual additions into updated and chronological maps.
Under Construction! Please check back again soon for updates.
