In light of Havard's Christmas present, I put a map of my own up. It's a map of the Atruaghin plateau as it is supposed to be (according to the 24 mile hex maps of it), not as it somehow got shrunk to on the Gaz14 map (really, if you compare the 24 and the 8, it somehow got a whole hunk of the center cut out of it).

There's still a little bit more to do with it- names, etc- but it's pretty complete. It was previously available only in smaller portions, but I've put them all together and added some to it.

Warning, it's kind of a large file... I'm still trying to figure out how to make it smaller- but I hope you all enjoy!

Amended Atruaghin Plateau



(Link is on the page)

Well- I managed to compress the file quite a bit without losing much of the quality- it's a .gif now, instead of a .bmp

Still might take a few seconds (especially for slower connections), but it should be easier to download.

I never actually noticted that before. The funny thing about it is I've always had this feeling that the 8-mile hex map was too small. And I see what you mean about the whole mid-section missing. Thanks, I'll definately be using this map IMC now (and I really do mean that since one of the party members is an Atruaghin warrior from the Children of the Bear's Mountain Lion Tribe!). Luckily I can do this without the players noticing because we've only been on the eastern side of the Plateau.

Nice map Andrew!

The more maps of Mystara out there the better! I especially like the color palettes you have chosen for your hex maps. Makes them give very much the feel of the gazetteer maps.

Make sure to let us know when the final details are added too.

Håvard

Definitely. I've been messing with that whole Atruaghin/Sind region (at 8 mi/hex) for some time now. Finally got around to completing (more or less) the Atruaghin thing, and putting it into one map, instead of several smaller ones.

Still tinkering with Sind, though. That's a huge region- plus it's tough trying to figure out where/how to place other villages on the smaller scale; particularly when you consider that the villages/towns they already have placed more or less take up the entire (suggested) 70/30 rural/urban ratio. There just shouldn't be any more large settlements at those rates with the population figures given.

Of course, it's not such a big problem with some regions (Sindrastan, say, with all of that desert), but it is in others (Nagpuri in particular is very fertile and should support higher population densities than listed).

(Speaking of which- just now noticing how spread out the Sind settlements are- kind of hard to believe that with such a low population density and such widely scattered settlements that they managed to create such a singularly homogenous culture... I'd expect Kadesh and Peshmir at the least to have very different customs. But It's up to us to figure out how it worked- at the moment, I'm leaning to the idea that there was just one "center" of culture, and during the wars of conquest they imposed it on the rest of the communities. They must have come into conflict with Darokin at some point, too, I'd imagine, given the wide ranging wars of conquest they went on.)

Thanks. I think they're slightly toned down from some of my earlier ones, which were a little on the bright side. Still not completely satisfied with them, but I'm glad to hear that others like them.

Will do. Was working on the lot this evening. I've already adjusted some of the borders a bit, and got some ideas for additions as a result (for instance, I figured out a place to put a lingering community of red orcs- that broken land area to the northwest of the plateau, which I now have as claimed by neither Sind or Atruaghin).

I'd still like to try and fit in the "Journey to the Rock" region somewhere in Sind (probably Nagpuri). I made a 1 mi/hex and subsequent 8 mi/hex map of the region from the map in the module, and am just looking for somewhere to drop it.

If I get a chance, I'll post the map of it up later today, and maybe I can get some more insight from the rest of you where it might best fit.

Another very good work!

By the way, are you planning to add a legend to the map? I was wondering what did the "whale" hexes mean - as well as some others...

Lovely map, but I do have one question...

Which mapping program are you using? I still think that the expanded D&D map symbols are one of the bests sets out there for hex mapping, and you have reproduced them very nicely - it looks great.

Other maps comments - possibly in need of rework:
Dengar/Verstaln border (I think) - there appears to be a river that splits within a couple of miles of its source. One branch goes east to the sea, the other eventually makes it's way all through Ethengar and Darokin etc to the southern sea! It's not easy to catch, but look at the two gazetteers and the interface between the 2 trail maps.
Karameikos - the re-draw. Karameikos is always drawn as bare hills leading up to the mountains, even in the later products, however the description in the gazetteer makes it quite clear that the hills are heavily forested. The forested hill symbol had not been invented when Gaz1 was produced, hence the basic hills in Gaz1.

Yes- I hope to be adding a legend to the map soon. Sorry about that. The whale symbols are just representative of spots where whaling takes place; it was a later introduction to the map legend and shows up on (IIRC) several of the Savage Coast maps as well.

The Serpent symbols are brand new- I created them to represent the serpent mounds of the long lost Viper Clans (still toying with who/what precisely the Viper clan are, but at the moment, they are a mostly underground dwelling branch of the Atruaghin people. Living in the upper reaches of the Shadowdeep, below the Atruaghin region. They only come above ground on occasion, and are generally avoided by the rest of the clans.)

I just use Microsoft Paint. I made the map hexes years ago, and have updated them slightly (along with the color palettes) since my first versions. Another gentleman (sadly, can't think of his name offhand! Sorry- I'll try and find the email he sent me) reworked the original hexes I had- they were sort of uneven- and inserted the symbols into them, as well as creating a few new symbols that I hadn't done. I think the new maps look much better than my old ones, but I'm still tweaking a bit.

That one was always really weird, as I recall (looking at the original 24 mile map of the Known World). Bruce Heard even poked fun at it in a Dragon article, if I remember correctly. Really weird. Maybe we should just call it the world's largest artificial waterway?

I remember wondering about that same thing at one point. I hadn't realized they didn't have forested hexes yet, but that would certainly account for it. I agree that it should be pretty much mostly forested hills, rather than just the "plain brown ones".

I do need to update an old Karameikos map I did a long time ago with my old hexes- if I get a chance to do it, I'll probably try it with your forested hex idea.

Very interesting Andrew, good work!
My compliments here also to Haavard's map of the KNown World, which seems very "professional".. (oh and congrats on your MA too..)

On a side note, I've read with pleasure also your article elaborating on the Atruaghin beliefs. I'll take inspiration from it when it comes to detail the Atruaghin religion in my Codex Immortalis then

The only annoying thing I have to report is the proliferation of unwanted ads and popups when I open any Angelfire page... I seriously advise you to move your stuff to some other server, coz Angelfire is bulky and annoying for those who hit its pages!

Forgive my geographical ignorance, but since I don't know mountains and rivers well at all, how exactly does this river split defy the physical laws? Is it because the source could not possibly feed both of these rivers?

I'd love to see a reworked map of Sind! A friend gave me a copy of Champions of Mystara with maps of Sind in it, but that map fits the western border of the "too small" map of Atruaghin clans plateau.

So anything you'll come up with will definetly be of interest to me!

:-) Jesper

Thanks!
I am glad you liked the map. I have been playing with Photoshop a while to get the effects more or less how I want them. I also have a few more Mystara maps in the same style that I hope to finnish in the not too distant future

Angelfire is annoying. I wish there were more free web page services out there. So far Geocities seems like the best option in spite of its downsides.

Ditto

Håvard