M5 Valley of Kings, 24 miles per hex

M5 included a few detail maps of the area around the Aurora River flowing down from the Upper Thothian Plateau. Of these, the Valley of Kings map is by far the best, depicting a river winding through canyons until it reaches its delta and the coast.

The map uses the same hexes as the larger Isle of Dawn map, but printed much larger. My replica is larger still, equating to a 6.7 mile per hex map if compared to my regular hexes — five of which would fit inside each of these large hexes.

Replica Map (May 2019)

Sources

• M5 Talons of Night (1987) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • “DM Map #3: The Valley of Kings”, page 23
  • “Players’ Aid #4: The Valley of the Dawn”, page 27
  • Cartography by Dennis Kauth, Steve Sullivan

Chronological Analysis

This is Map 71. It was published in November 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 the upcoming 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

• Lakes — The Aurora River’s main source is shown to be an unnamed lake, apparently dammed.
• Rivers — The small scale map showed a few tributaries flowing into the Aurora River, but this map provides a lot more, as well as a more detail for all of the rivers. It also names them for the first time: Aurora River, Dragon River, River of Dreams, Spider River, and the Thothian Delta where the Aurora River reaches the coast.
• Settlements — The Temple of the Dawn and Edairo both appear here for the first time. They are also shown on M5’s small scale map. Edairo is shown to be surrounded by numerous small unnamed villages, with no less than eleven shown on the map.
• Terrain — The titular Valley of Kings is shown to be long, weather-carved canyon, with multiple levels of escarpment walls in places, and mesas around which the doubtless mighty Aurora River threads and winds.

Revisions

• Terrain — The “Players’ Aid” version of the map is titled Valley of the Dawn rather than Valley of Kings.

Hex Art & Fonts

• Symbols — Hand-drawn symbols.
• Fonts — Helvetica throughout.

Textual Additions (M5, November 1987)

• Altitude — “The Aurora River has carved a gigantic network of canyon lands with 3,000-foot-high walls where the river enters the Thothian desert.” So the Southern Plateau towers 3,000 feet above Thothia, at least in the east. (M5 page 46b)
• Settlements — The text clarifies a couple of labels on the map:
  • The Kenaton label on the map refers to a village inhabited by hunakoi stone giants: “A walled village of huge stone huts huddles against the river. Red-hued stone giants work nets in the river while tending to crops and day-to-day tasks.” “The Dominion of Kenaton is a fortified villa on the shores of the Aurora river.” The listed inhabitants are 60 hunakoi stone giants as well as the human cleric Ejiiptus Kenaton Ka, and his stone giant companion Feldspar. (All M5 page 12a)
  • The Temple of the Dawn is “A huge temple in the Valley of the Dawn built by the ancient Thothian Pharaoh Tokaramses, its great wall spans the canyon, creating a lake and a spectacular waterfall. Abandoned by men, it is occupied by evil entities.” The position of the temple is visible on the inside cover’s DM Map #4, right behind the dam’s central outpour into the Aurora River. The symbol for ruins seems appropriate.
• Terrain — The two maps provided conflicting names for the canyons depicted on the map. The text does not clarify this, using both names. However, the Players’ Aid version, Valley of the Dawn, occurs only three times in the text (on page 1, and twice on page 46b), while Valley of Kings occurs nine times over six different pages (pages 1, 9, 10, 12, 20, and 33). Therefore Valley of the Kings is the common name, with Valley of the Dawn as an occasional variant.