Karameikos 2E Known World, 24 miles per hex

Mystara’s AD&D debut included two poster maps: one of Karameikos, the other of the Known World. Both were hex maps, depicting the world in 1012 AC.

They included a major shock for longtime fans of the setting: although they were still hex maps, the style was completely different from before. Instead of an icon centred in each coloured hex, these maps featured coloured hexes with larger symbols scattered across them. On top of that, the colour palette was far more saturated than before, with dark browns and greens presenting a stark contrast with the other colours.

In fact, the style was roughly the same as that used in classic Greyhawk maps — specifically Darlene’s famous map (if you’re unfamiliar with it, you can see lots of pictures in this article at Wayne’s Books) — though this was probably lost on many Mystara fans at the time; indeed, it took me until 2020 to realise the similarity.

Despite the art style’s lineage and popularity among Greyhawk and AD&D fans, it came as an unwelcome change for the worse in the eyes of many Mystara fans.

In terms of significance, the map itself presented little that wasn’t already in 1992’s Wrath of the Immortals map. The overcrowding of that map was largely fixed here, though it resulted in some strange looking trails leading apparently to nowhere — especially at the coasts. Heldann and Wendar remain tantalisingly out of sight beneath the legend. Probably the most significant feature is the travel times in the legend, which are a welcome aid to DMs.

Standardised Replica Map (November 2020)

Note: This is a standardised replica, replacing the original hex art and colour palette with the Atlas standards.

Sources

• Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure (1994) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • Poster map

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).