M5 Isle of Dawn, 24 miles per hex

M5’s exploration of the Isle of Dawn in 1987 marked the first move east from the Known World in the setting’s publication. Previously, parts of the Isle of Dawn and Alphatia had appeared at the edges of Norwold maps, such as in M1 and M4, but that was the extent of their coverage. With M5, Jennell Jacquays kicked off the development of this important region.

It has become an iconic map for Mystara, but it’s not without its problems. Comparison with the next evolution of the Isle of Dawn in 1989’s Dawn of the Emperors immediately reveals a scale issue: even though both maps share roughly the same terrain, this map has far fewer hexes — but both are marked as 24 miles per hex. Comparisons with the continental maps and other adjacent area maps reveal that M5’s version was in fact under-scaled, with the actual scale lying closer to 33.7 miles per hex than the marked 24.

But this is an easy fix, and a quick adjustment to the scale doesn’t affect the value of this original map at all. Indeed, almost all of the Isle of Dawn’s major features, provinces and settlements originate in this map. It seems that Dawn of the Emperors’ cartographers noticed and corrected the scale problem with minimal negative repercussions.

Replica Map (December 2020)

Replica Map (January 2021)

Sources

• M5 Talons of Night (1987) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • “DM Map #1: Isle of the Dawn”, inside cover
  • “Players’ Aid #1: Map of the Isle of the Dawn”, page 21
  • Cartography by Dennis Kauth, Steve Sullivan

Chronological Analysis

This is Map 71. It was published in November 1987. 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 the upcoming Let’s Map Mystara 1987.

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

• Settlements —

RevisionsSaveSave

• Naming — Although it was previously referred to as the Isle of Dawn, these maps have Isle of the Dawn.

Hex Art & Fonts

Textual Additions (M5, November 1987)

• Altitude — “The Aurora River has carved a gigantic network of canyon lands with 3,000-foot-high walls where the river enters the Thothian desert.” So the Southern Plateau towers 3,000 feet above Thothia, at least in the east. (M5 page 46b)
• Borders —
• Immortals — M5 includes a few new Immortals:
  • Arachne Prime, the “Night Spider”, a spider Immortal. Her home plane is Thorne, “a world under the influence of the Sphere of Death”. (M5 page 34b)
  • Rathanos, a minor Energy Immortal in the pantheon of the Magian Fire Worshippers, once worshipped by the ancient Thothians. (M5 pages 10, 11, 22, 45c)
• Naming — M5’s text uses Isle of Dawn extensively throughout; the map’s usage of Isle of the Dawn occurs only once in the entire text (M5 page 44a). It can therefore be concluded that the latter is a variant of only occasional use, valid as a name but far less common.
• Nations — M5 introduces a large number of new nations scattered across the Isle of Dawn.
  • Thothia is “an ancient land, once the primary power on the Sea of Dawn. Its small, brown, red-haired people are descended from colonists of the lost empire of ancient Nithia on the western continent (the cultures of Nithia and Thothia are similar to ancient Egypt’s. Several centuries ago, the Thothians shifted away from the Sphere of Energy to follow the philosophy of mysticism.” (M5 page 7a) Pharaoh Ramhotep X founded this mysticism after encountering Aketheti on the southern plateau (M5 page 7a). Regular Thothians believe that their spider symbol represents “the eight principles and powers of Thothian mysticism” and are “unaware of its links to evil and death”, as in fact it represents the Night Spider/Arachne Prime (M5 page 7a).
• Planes — An Outer Plane connected with Entropy, Thorne (M5 page 34b). Although it’s referred to as “the world of Thorne” (M5 page 36a), its status as an Outer Plane is both hinted at and explicitly confirmed: it is Arachne Prime’s home plane (she is exiled there if killed elsewhere, but dies permanently if killed there; M5 pages 34b, 37a); it is accessible through a gate allowing travellers to leap the “vast astral void” (M5 page 36a); and it is “a world beyond the Astral Plane, one of the so-called outer planes on the fringes of the Sphere of Death’s primary influence” (M5 page 36b).
• Rivers — The map shows many rivers, all unlabelled; the text gives quite a lot of information on these.
  • Little Dawn River: the river upon which Trikelios sits. (M5 page 45b) Since Trikelios does not seem to sit on any river on this map, it can be assumed that it was meant to be situated on the river one hex to the southwest.
  • Spider River: (M5 pages 13a,
• Rulers — Many new names were introduced in this module.
  • Queen Aketheti XIII, wife of Ramenhotep and “the true power in Edairo”. Actually “a spider creature, the “daughter” of the Night Spider, capable of assuming human form”. (M5 page 7a) She is “a magic-using, vampiric creature” whose “normal form is that of a giant night-black planar spider” (M5 page 9b). “She has been queen of Thothia since the reign of Ramenhotep X, over 13 generations ago, but the populace of Thothia is unaware that Aketheti I (“rescued” by Ramenhotep X from the wilds of the southern plateau) and Aketheti XIII are the same being.” (M5 page 42a)
  • King Ramenhotep XXIII, pharaoh and spiritual leader of the Kingdom of Thothia. (M5 page 7a)
  • Ramenhotep X, “the mystical undead king of ancient Thothia” (M5 page 3a). He was “drawn to discover her in the ruins of Aran and fell under her charms.”
  • Ramenhotep XI – XXII: It is heavily implied that most (perhaps even all) Thothian pharaohs since Ramenhotep X have taken the same name. See the quote under Queen Aketheti XIII above.
  • Pharaoh Tokaramses, an ancient king of Thothia. (M5 page 46b)
• Settlements — The text gives some extra information on the Isle of Dawn’s settlements, and especially Edairo, where much of the adventure takes place.
  • Edairo: “Edairo is a dusty, crumbling, crowded city of low, flat-roofed structures, towering pyramids and might obelisks. Everything is in disrepair.” The people “don’t particularly like foreigners”. (All M5 page 7a) The library is “a major landmark in the city”, “a great pyramid, similar to the forty or so great pyramids in Edairo.” (M5 page 7b) The royal palace is “an imposing structure of many buildings, gardens and courtyards” situated “on an island in the Aurora river”. (M5 page 8ab)
• Waterfalls — Aside from the Aurora River, “[t]he plateau’s other rivers end in monumental waterfalls that drench the plateau base in heavy mist.” There are three other rivers marked on the map, so we can assume three major waterfalls. (M5 page 46b)

Maps of the Isle of Dawn, 24 miles per hex