21 March 2018

Shiye-Lawr, 8 miles per hex

This is a deep-woods nation and city of elves. It was settled by permission of the emperors of Alphatia more than fifteen hundred years ago; it is very old, very deeply-hidden, and very mysterious to friends of elvenkind. The Shiye (Alphatian elves) are distant cousins of the elves of Alfheim and the western continent, and have the reputation of being malicious and threatening. This is said to be because they terrify those who wander unwanted into their realm… but they are still staunch allies of the Empire, and many elves leave the deep forests of Shiye-Lawr for decades of centuries to adventure in the outer world.

from Dawn of the Emperors, by Aaron Allston

Map (updated 21st March 2018)

*Updated map of the Alphatian Kingdom of Shiye-Lawr, 8 miles per hex*

Sources

Haven, 8 mile per hex map by Bruce Heard
Stoutfellow, 8 mile per hex map by Bruce Heard
Dawn of the Emperors (1989)
- The Empire of Alphatia 24 mile per hex poster map

Secondary Sources

Ramelin Mystara Shiye-Lawr, 8 miles per hex

Comments

Unfortunately, Bruce Heard never completed his reworking of Alphatia, leaving the provinces of Shiye-Lawr and Blackheart undeveloped. In Shiye-Lawr’s case, it was also almost completely unmapped; although we saw some terrain on the edges of the Haven and Stoutfellow maps, there was no detailing. (It’s a shame that Bruce’s project was derailed; on the other hand, we did get Calidar as a result.)

Luckily, Ignacio Ramos has stepped in and developed the missing regions, taking design cues from Bruce’s development. The resulting Ramelin Mystara map is the only detailed map of the region thus far. Since it goes so well with Bruce’s Alphatia, expanding on the small parts that we did see while developing the rest, the Atlas of Mystara is adopting it as the main source for Shiye-Lawr.

Notes

Alfleigh — Dawn of the Emperors Book Three page 10b lists the capital as “Alfleigh”. However, all other references (including Dawn’s map and the Poor Wizard’s Almanac series’ maps and text) have “Alfleish”. The Atlas considers “Alfleigh” to be a mistake.
Blackheart border area — the 24 mile per hex map shows clear hexes in this area. However, it seems likely that this was to avoid cluttering too many symbols into these hexes rather than deliberately marking these hexes as clear terrain. A discussion on Facebook yielded lots of ideas, but little consensus. The Atlas has therefore adopted a compromise solution, splitting the area into a mix of forest and small clearings.
Ramelin Mystara — Ignacio Ramos explains his concept for Shiye-Lawr: “I imagine a forest atop a very old caldera, with hot springs, geysers and boiling lakes. The region suffers from many small tremors as it sits on top of a potential Supervolcano. Otherwise the land is bountiful and an elven paradise (except the border with Blackheart).”
Waterfalls — as Ramelin Mystara introduced a series of ridges to Shiye-Lawr, the Atlas assumes that the rivers descending these ridges form a series of waterfalls.