Hollow World Set Outer World Precataclysmic Map
1990’s Hollow World Campaign Set was revolutionary in all sorts of ways, and many of them did not even relate to the concept of the Hollow World. Among these were the first conglomerated timeline, the first extensive list of Immortals, the first detailed world map since the Master Set — and this map, the first pre-Great Rain of Fire world map.
The idea of the Great Rain of Fire and the world shifting on its axis as Blackmoor was destroyed dated back to the DA series and the Gazetteer series. It didn’t arrive all at once, but was slowly added to over time. DA1 introduced it in 1986, referring to it as a great cataclysm that occurred 3,000 years before the present day. GAZ1 repeated this, adding the idea of a change in the world’s axis. Finally, GAZ2 shifted it from 3,000 years ago to 3,000 BC, or 4,000 years ago, pushing the Blackmoor of the DA series back another thousand years to 4,000 BC.
Of course there were maps of Blackmoor, but no world maps from that era, and the scattered references made it far from clear where it was intended to have been located. The topic later sparked long and involved conversations in the fan community, with differences in opinion remaining to this day.
So, this was the first map of the world of Blackmoor.
Unfortunately, it also introduced a range of new consistency problems. This was to be expected given the scattered and conflicting references describing the ancient world. Inconsistencies included the position of the pre-cataclysm North Pole, the location of Blackmoor as well as its direction and distance from Thonia, and of course the issues with the projection.
This last point is by far the worst, as this map was based on the Hollow World Set Outer World Planetary Map, with its stretched continents and erroneous interpretation of the world. Even aside from that, there may well be problems with its use of projections, as it was (necessarily) an artist’s impression rather than a true-and-accurate map.
Despite all of this, it was a great map, and a wonderful step forward for depicting the world in the Age of Blackmoor. Fans continue to develop and refine based on this map to this day.
Replica Map (September 2025)
Sources
- Hollow World Campaign Set (1990) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
- Poster map 4 (Cartography by David C Sutherland, David S LaForce, Dennis Kauth, Frey Graphics)
References
- New Map: Hollow World Precataclysmic Map post at Patreon
Chronological Analysis
This is Map 154. It was published in August 1990. The updated version of this map has not yet been released. See also Appendix C for annual chronological snapshots of the area. For the full context of this map in Mystara’s publication history, see Let’s Map Mystara 1990.
The following lists are from the Let’s Map Mystara project. Additions are new features, introduced in this map. Revisions are changes to previously-introduced features. Hex Art & Fonts track design elements. Finally, Textual Additions are potential features found in the related text. In most cases, the Atlas adopts these textual additions into updated and chronological maps.
Under Construction! Please check back again soon for updates.
Additions
- XXX —
Revisions
- XXX —
Hex Art & Fonts
- Hex Art —
- Fonts —
Textual Additions (Hollow World Set, 1990)
- XXX —
