Dragon 172 Southern Hule, 8 miles per hex

Continuing where the previous issue’s map left off, Dragon 172 presented the only glimpse of Hule at 8 miles per hex to appear during Mystara’s time in print. X5 had sketched out the general area at 24 miles per hex seven years before, but since it was mostly blank hexes, the vast majority of the detail on this map was new.

On a personal note, Dragon 172 never came to my town, so I missed it despite having a subscription with the local paper shop. This and my inability to get my hands on X4, X5 or X10 set up Hule as a hugely mysterious and tantalising nation in my mind — an image that was never dispelled even when I later obtained the books through eBay.

Replica Map (September 2020)

Sources

• The Voyage of the Princess Ark Part 19: Hule!, Dragon 172 (August 1991)
  • Page 47 map (Cartography by Dennis Kauth)

Map Types

The Atlas of Mystara includes a few fundamentally different types of maps. The colour of the castle wall border on each map shows which category it belongs to.

• Replica maps (white castle border) are exact replicas of primary source maps. They present the world of Mystara as the original source materials depict it, warts and all. No attempt has been made to fix errors of any kind — even typos. As far as possible, replica maps use the same art as the original maps, though in many cases they are colourised. These maps are the main source material of the Atlas of Mystara, forming the base of all of the updated maps.
• Updated maps (green castle border) present the Atlas of Mystara’s consistent view of the world, with all errors, alignment issues, and so on fixed. They use standardised hex art and fonts. Anything not marked as a replica map is an updated map.
• Chronological maps (yellow castle border) provide snapshots of Mystara at the end of a certain year in its publication history. In effect, they are updated maps created from a limited list of sources. The years in question appear in the title of each map.
• Fan-made maps are unofficial maps created by other fan cartographers. As such, they do not follow the Atlas’s castle border colour scheme. The Atlas presents these maps in their original form, with the permission of the cartographers. The Atlas considers these maps secondary sources, and updated maps of areas not covered by official maps make extensive use of them. In a few cases, the Atlas also presents Replica fan-made maps (red castle border).