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.
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 —
Revisions
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)
- Immortals — Rathanos, a minor Energy Immortal in the pantheon of the Magian Fire Worshippers. (M5 pages 10, 11, 22, 45)
- 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, wife of Ramenhotep and “the true power in Edairo”. (M5 page 7a)
- King Ramenhotep XXIII, pharaoh of the Kingdom of Thothia. (M5 page 7a)
- 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: 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)
