Wrath of the Immortals Alphatia 1004 AC, 72 miles per hex
Pre-disaster Alphatia. This map is not particularly remarkable on its own, as it shows the familiar configuration of Alphatia as presented in Dawn of the Emperors. It’s the calm before the storm.
It does have two things of note, however: it’s the only source of names for the individual islands of the Yannivey archipelago; and it presents Alphatia’s forests with coniferous forest hexes for the first time.
Its pair, showing the area post-disaster, is where the real fun begins.
Replica Map (October 2020)
Sources
- Wrath of the Immortals (1992) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
- Poster map A (Cartography by Dennis Kauth)
Chronological Analysis
This is Map 199. It was published in August 1992. 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 1992.
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; and 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
- Islands — The three southernmost Yannivey Islands are named: Nuntar Island, Oltar Island, and Oth Island. (The northernmost, not featured on this map, remains nameless.)
Revisions
- Forests — Alphatia’s forests are shown to be predominantly coniferous.
- Spellings — Aaslan Spur Mountains is a revision of the previous Aasla Spur Mountains (Dawn 1989), but it didn’t stick. Subsequent maps such as Bruce Heard’s Haven, 8 miles per hex reverted to the original spelling.
15 November 2020 @ 3:58 am
Trollhattan?! In Alphatia?
15 November 2020 @ 9:12 pm
It’s not really that surprising.
Alphatia embodies the Scandinavian peninsula on the Jurassic Earth map.
There is a real world city called Trollhättan in Sweden.
Alphatia’s capital, Sundsvall, is also a real life city in Sweden.
Aasla may well be a corruption of Oslo, capital of Norway.
Incidentally, these three names were the first to appear for Alphatia in 1985’s M1 Into the Maelstrom by Bruce Heard. So they’re actually the oldest names associated with it.
“Trollhattan” was used again in 1989’s GAZ10 The Orcs of Thar, also by Bruce Heard. That usage has caught some flak from readers over the years, as some view it as a crude joke linked with “Manhattan” — which in all fairness it probably was in GAZ10, which contained a lot of humour like this. Perhaps this is what you were referring to? But Alphatia’s Trollhattan actually came first, and in a product largely devoid of Bruce’s signature sense of humour.