GAZ1 Specularum
GAZ1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos was revolutionary for Mystara in all sorts of ways. One of the more unexpected things it gave us was a completely new map of the capital city of Specularum. This had been mapped three years previously in B6 The Veiled Society, but GAZ1’s map bore almost no resemblance to B6’s.
But while GAZ1’s map was radically different in shape and style, it also included a wealth of detail that was brand new to the setting. It could also be said that it adapted the main points of B6’s map — primarily the Duke’s Stronghold, the Duke’s Park, and the city’s location on the West Bank of a river — but the lack of resemblance could suggest that B6’s map was either unknown to the cartographers, or disregarded for some reason. We will probably never know, but perhaps the most likely scenario is just that the designers wanted to go with a different style. After all, the style of this map was doubly important, because it set a strong precedent for all successive Gazetteer town maps.
In terms of detail, the city was split up into named quarters, with a few streets named, and fourteen keyed locations — although number 12 was accidentally left off the map. All of this was new in GAZ1.
This map would be reprised, mostly unchanged, in a number of later products, including B1-9 and Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure.
Replica Map (May 2025)
Sources
- GAZ1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos (1987) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
- Poster map, Cartography by Dennis Kauth, David C Sutherland III, Ron Kauth
Chronological Analysis
This is a Town Map. It was published in May 1987. The updated version of this map has not yet been released. See also Appendix C for annual chronological snapshots of the area. For the full context of this map in Mystara’s publication history, see Let’s Map Mystara 1987.
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.
Additions
- XXX —
Revisions
- XXX —
Hex Art & Fonts
- Hex Art —
- Fonts —
Textual Additions (GAZ1, 1987)
- XXX —
