Alfheim, 8 miles per hex

The magic of Alfheim is perhaps the most distinguishing quality of the place.  Sages specialising in geography wonder at the fact of a thick, almost jungle-like forest composed mostly of scrub oak trees and other ordinary valley scrub plants growing to nearly double size and greater. In this climate, and with the dense leaf cover, the ground should be nearly bare.  Yet the forest floor is densely carpeted with an amazing variety of flora, all competing desperately for sunlight and making travel through the forest nearly impossible for those not initiated into the elven ways. This is yet one more mystery attributed to the great magics of Ilsundal and the elven mages who first colonised Alfheim.

from GAZ5 The Elves of Alfheim, by Steve Perrin and Anders Swenson

Map (December 2020)

Sources

• GAZ5 The Elves of Alfheim (1988) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Alfheim, 8 miles per hex
  • Eastern Alfheim, 8 miles per hex
  • GAZ5 Elven Migrations
• TM1 The Western Countries (1989) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • The Western Countries, 8 miles per hex
• Rules Cyclopedia (1991) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Known World, 8 miles per hex
• O2 Blade of Vengeance (1985) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Emerlas, 3 miles per hex
• CM7 The Tree of Life (1986) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Selinar, 3 miles per hex

Comments

The Alfheim map is without a doubt the least changed of any of my updated maps.  There are no significant changes or updates to speak of.

Having said that, this is also a map that I’m still working on, as you can see from the To Do List included below.  Zendrolion has also suggested some changes which you can see on the map thread for Alfheim over at The Piazza, linked in the References section below.

I’d also like to add some villages to the map, starting with Zendrolion’s suggestions.

One caveat: a lot of these things may not fit on the map due to lack of space at this scale.  Robin has produced a wonderful 1 mile per hex map for those wishing to see a more detailed look at Alfheim.

Notes

• Battle sites — four unnamed battle sites are marked on the GAZ5 map, superimposed on Giant Home Trees hexes. Both TM1 and the Rules Cyclopedia deleted them. They have been restored in the Atlas map.
• Selinar Lakes — the stream linking the easternmost of the Selinar Lakes was erroneously left out in later maps.  It has been restored in the updated map.
• Villages — although the map shows no villages at all, the text supports their addition (GAZ5 page 17c-18a): “The most common type of elven habitation is the village of from five to 30 inhabited Home Trees in a fairly small area, housing 200-500 elves.” It would be quite reasonable to mark the most significant of these on the map, where space allows.
• Vorsh Plains — this is the name of the unforested area in southeastern Alfheim in which the Stalkbrow Bad Magic Point is located. (GAZ5 page 23b)

To Do List

1. Check GAZ5, CM7, O2 and other relevant sources for geographic details and write notes on the updated map.
2. Create replica of GAZ5 Eastern Alfheim, 8 miles per hex map.
3. Create replica of GAZ5 Sump and Weir, 1 mile per hex map.
4. Create replica of GAZ5 Alfheim Town and Surrounding Farm Land, non-hex with 8 mile overlay map.
5. Create replica of GAZ5 The Elven Migrations, non-hex partial world map.

References

1. Alfheim at the Vaults of Pandius
2. Alfheim map thread at The Piazza

Thanks to:

John Calvin (Chimpman), Lost Woodrake, Simone Neri (Zendrolion), Andrew Theisen (Cthulhudrew)

Maps of Alfheim, 8 miles per hex

Maps of Aengmor