Heldann, 8 miles per hex

This cold, dark land […] faces the chilly waters where the Sea of Dawn meets the Alphatian Sea. In winter, piercingly cold winds blow down from Norwold. This is a harsh, hard land, a land where crops struggle to take hold in thin and rocky soil, a land where livestock which survives the harsh winters is thin, stringy, and mean. But it is, to many eyes, a beautiful land. Inland, the land is dominated by tall, hard-edged mountains; toward the sea, the arable lowlands look more welcoming than they actually are; everywhere, pine forests grow tall, deep, and dark.

 from Poor Wizard’s Almanac, by Aaron Allston

Map (December 2021)

Sources

• CM1 Test of the Warlords (1984) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • CM1 Norwold, 24 miles per hex
• X1 The Isle of Dread (1981) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
• X11 Saga of the Shadow Lord (1986) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • X11 Wendar and Denagoth, 24 miles per hex
• X13 Crown of Ancient Glory (1987) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • X13 Isle of Erid Overview, 0.5 miles per hex
• GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri (1987) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • GAZ3 Glantri, 8 miles per hex
• GAZ9 The Minrothad Guilds (1988) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • GAZ9 Major Known Trading Routes
• GAZ11 The Republic of Darokin (1989) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • GAZ11 Major Trading Routes
• GAZ12 The Golden Khan of Ethengar (1989) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • GAZ12 Ethengar, 8 miles per hex
• TM1 The Western Countries (1989)
  • TM1 The Western Countries, 8 miles per hex
• TM2 The Eastern Countries (1989)
  • TM2 The Eastern Countries, 8 miles per hex
• Wrath of the Immortals (1992) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Wrath Known World, 24 miles per hex
  • Wrath Known World, 48 miles per hex
• Poor Wizard’s Almanac (1992)
  • Heldannic Territories, 1 sq. equals 18 miles
• Poor Wizard’s Almanac II (1993) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Heldannic Territories, 1 sq. equals 18 miles
• Joshuan’s Almanac (1995) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Heldannic Territories
• Heldann Articles by Bruce Heard (1998-1999), archived at the Vaults of Pandius
  • Population Demographics (1998)
  • Heldannic Knights — Historical Timeline (1999), Part I and Part II

Fan Sources

• Geoff’s Heldann, 8 miles per hex (1998)
• Thibault’s Heldann, 8 miles per hex v1 (2000), v2 (2001), v3 (2004), v4 (2004)
• Darkblood’s Known World, 8 miles per hex (2000-2002)
• Heldann, 8 miles per hex (2001) by Tim Roberts
• Heldann, 8 miles per hex (2002) by Hirwen Harendal
• The Heldannic Empire Gazetteer (2005) by Thibault Sarlat
• Gaz F7 The Heldannic Order (2007) by JTR (PDF at the Vaults of Pandius)
  • The Heldannic Territories, 8 miles per hex (2007) by JTR
• The Heldannic Territories, 8 miles per hex (2015) by Jose Ignacio Ramos Lomelin
• Norwold, 24 miles per hex (2015) by Simone Neri
• Additional Suggestions for Heldann (2021) by Geoff Gander

Comments

In many ways, Heldann is one of the holy grails of Mystara lore. Had the Gazetteer series continued, it would surely have been the first choice to be GAZ15. (In fact, at one point Heldann was slated to be just that — see 1993 in this old planning document from Bruce Heard.) But, as we all know, the Mystara product line ceased publication before that could come to pass.

This left us with a scattered set of references, and a few fragments from the edges of existing maps — though only TM2 added anything in the way of detail, and unfortunately only to a very small area. Despite Heldann getting maps in three of the four Almanacs, the lack of a Gazetteer and a detailed map left the area tantalisingly incomplete.

Not to be out-done, Bruce Heard posted a slew of articles in the late 90s, developing the nation bit by bit over the course of a couple of years. These bits and pieces all add up to quite a significant amount of material, although it’s not quite a full Gazetteer. I have listed the most relevant of these (for the purpose of creating a map, that is) among the Sources above.

Community Creations

Meanwhile, the fans were not idle. Geoff Gander produced and posted a map of Heldann at 8 miles per hex. This was the first of many fan-made maps of the nation, as you can see from the list of Fan Sources above. Each of these maps built on previous work in the area, slowly adding more and more detail.

And it wasn’t just maps: the fan-written Mystaran Almanac series consistently included events for Heldann. Then in 2005, Thibault Sarlat created his own Heldannic Empire Gazetteer, expanding on Bruce’s articles, although regrettably its unfinished parts prevented him from sharing it widely among the community at the time. After that, JTR wrote and posted Gaz F7 The Heldannic Order in 2007, also based on Bruce’s articles. Both of these gazetteers had accompanying maps.

Atlas Heldann

So as it turns out Heldann is far from a vacuum. In fact, there is a wealth of information about it, and the community has now created many maps of the nation.

The Atlas of Mystara exists to bridge the gap between officially published Mystara and fan-created additions to Mystara. The first priority is to create consistency between official sources, but for unmapped regions such as Heldann, the next priority is to map out these areas while creating as much consistency between community material and official products as possible.

Which brings us to the Atlas version of Heldann, presented in the map above and the accompanying (extensive) notes below. As you would expect, I have striven to maintain consistency first with the Atlas model, derived fully from official sources (most notably X11 and CM1, as well as Wrath and the Almanacs); and then to adapt fan-created sources to the resulting map. I’ve made extensive reference to Thibault’s gazetteer as well as JTR’s Gaz F7, and I’ve attempted to maintain compatibility with both of these books.

As with all updated maps, I am fully open to feedback, and I will be happy to discuss revisions to the map. But please do check the notes below, as my reasoning for various decisions should then become clear.

The Norwold Conundrum

Heldann sits at the join between the Known World and Norwold. Further complicating matters, its primary source, X11, is incompatible with CM1’s Norwold. These inconsistencies must be solved in order to draw a map of Heldann.

The Atlas solution comes from the chronological model of Mystara being built up in the Let’s Map Mystara project. The first release is based on Mystara 1986, in which all the initial sources for Heldann are present and resolved.

Notes

• Borders — CM1 established Norwold’s southern border, and thus Heldann’s northern border, as a line running inland northwest from the coast just west of Landfall. X11 changed this to an east-west line extending inland from roughly the same area, bisecting the Altenwald. The resulting triangle of land (between the Altenwald and the Heldland River) has since become known as the Heldland, with the differing border adopted into the setting as indicating somewhat conflicted land. The Atlas currently places the Heldland within Heldann’s territory as of 1000 AC, though the actual status on the ground may not match the ideals of the map.
• Coastline — Combining all the sources to create a synthesised coastline that includes all the most interesting elements.
• Forests — X11’s original view of Heldann was entirely treeless. However, descriptions of the nation invariably stress its deep pine forests, and every map since has added at least a little tree cover.
  • Altenwald — Origin: Geoff Gander. The forest itself appeared first as a block of forested hills in Wrath, then as a block of unnamed forest in the Almanacs. The name appears on Geoff’s map, and Bruce Heard refers to it in his Historical Timelines.
  • Schoenwald — Origin: Geoff Gander.
• Heldland — Origin: Bruce Heard.
• Kamminer Bay — Origin: Thibault Sarlat.
• Lake Erid — Origin: X13. Geoff incorporated the lake in his original map.
• Ostbergen — Origin: Geoff Gander.
• Red Fangs — Origin: X13, though the twin mountain hexes (or at least mountains around this location) were present in the original X1 map. Note that Wrath moved the border with the Ethengar Steppes right up to East Fang. Geoff Gander’s map seems to be based on this. The Atlas model is mostly based on X1, which explains the difference in placement of these mountains.
• Rivers — X11 featured a single river flowing east from the Mengul Mountains across Heldann to the sea. Subsequent maps have added a few more rivers. The Atlas view is to look at water drainage basins and draw in rivers as required based on terrain and settlement locations.
  • Elber River — Origin: X11, as the Naga River. This river originally comes from X11, where a section of it was obscured by the Mengul Mountains label. Wrath of the Immortals took this to be a section of the river going underground, adding tunnel-like symbols at the entrance and exit points. Although this was surely not X11’s intent, it is certainly an interesting idea, so the Atlas has adopted it. The local Heldannic name Elber River comes from one of the tables in TM1.
  • Graugrim River — Origin: Thorfinn Tait. The eastern tributary of Lake Erid, running from East Fang.
  • Grüntal River — Origin: Thorfinn Tait.
  • Heldland River — Origin: Bruce Heard.
  • Isar River — Origin: Geoff Gander. Lengthened to extend further into the Schoenbergen.
  • Naga River — See Elber River above.
  • Scholten River — Origin: Hirwen Harendal, using the spelling “Sholten”. Hirwen had this as the westernmost river, running from south of the Kevar Pass to Lake Lorelei. Atlas Heldann considers Lorelei to be on the other side of the hills dividing southwestern and northeastern Heldann, so this river went unused. Instead, the name has been reused for the small tributary running from West Fang to Lake Erid.
• Settlements — Heldann started out with just a capital, but the settlements have proliferated with every new iteration of the map.
  • Altendorf — Origin: Wrath. Population: 4,800 (Bruce Heard, 1010 AC; Gaz F7, 1000 AC), 1,800 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Blauendorf — Origin: TM2. Population: 840 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Eisenturm — Origin: Geoff Gander. Population: 750 (Gaz F7, 1000 AC), 910 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Forton — Origin: Joshuan’s Almanac. Population: 5,100 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Freiburg — Origin: X11. Appeared on many smaller scale maps starting in X11, then GAZ9 and GAZ11’s trading maps, Wrath, and finally the Almanacs. The exact location comes from TM2’s direction, “16 miles to Freiburg”, together with a desire to place it on the coast — although previous maps (beginning with Geoff Gander) placed it a few hexes inland. Various population figures exist for Freiburg, from 15,000 (Bruce, 1010 AC), 15,000 with 10,000 in the surrounding areas (Gaz F7, 1000 AC), to 25,000 (Almanacs, 1010-1012 AC), to 35,000 (Thibault, 1020 AC). Whichever is adopted, Freiburg is clearly a City. See also Haldisvall.
  • Grauenberg — Origin: Wrath. Population: 3,800 (Bruce, 1010 AC; Gaz F7, 1000 AC), 8,000 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Grünturm — Origin: TM2 as “Grunturm”; Thibault has Grünturm. Population: 650 (Gaz F7, 1000 AC), 450 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Haldisvall — Origin: Bruce Heard. Freiburg was called this until 950 AC.
  • Hayavik — Origin: GAZ12. Strelitz was built on the ruins of this village.
  • Hockstein — Origin: Wrath. Population: 4,300 (Bruce, 1010 AC; Gaz F7, 1000 AC), 3,500 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Holzbrücke — Origin: Geoff Gander.
  • Kaltstein — Origin: TM2. Population: 710 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Kammin — Origin: Geoff Gander. Population: 2,300 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Klagen — Origin: TM2. Population: 430 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Neuhafen — Origin: XXX. Population: 830 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Pflenzen — Origin: Geoff Gander. Population: 650 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Schneiderheim — Origin: Thibault Sarlat. Population: 540 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Schwarzberg — Origin: Geoff Gander. Population: 625 (Gaz F7, 1000 AC), 500 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
  • Skolgrim — Origin: Bruce Heard. Grauenberg was called this until 960 AC.
  • Strelitz — Origin: Thibault Sarlat. Built on the ruins of Hayavik.
  • Thurgau — Origin: Geoff Gander. Population: 1,700 (Thibault, 1020 AC).
• Schoenbergen — Origin: JTR.
• Sudbergen — Origin: Geoff Gander.
• Trails — X11 provided a bare minimum of trails: from Wendar to Freiburg, with a branch south to Ethengar on the way; and along the coast from Freiburg, north to Norwold and south to Vestland. The status of these trails as roads or lesser trails is slightly ambiguous in X11. Wrath changed most of these to roads, with the exception of the trails shown on TM2 south of Freiburg. The Almanacs again reverted these to trails, although once again this is ambiguous. Fan-made maps largely adapted Wrath‘s roads, changing the Ethengar link (and sometimes more) back to trails. The Atlas follows in largely the same way.

References

1. Heldann at the Vaults of Pandius

Thanks to:

Geoff Gander, Bruce Heard, JTR, Jose Ignacio Ramos Lomelin, Ricardo Matheus, Simone Neri, Tim Roberts, Thibault Sarlat

Past and Future Versions of this Map

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