X8 Sea of Dread, 24 miles per hex

A small footnote in 1984’s massive expansion of the mapped world of Mystara, X8 nevertheless provides one unique addition to the map: the island of Teki-Nura-Ria and three other small islands in the Sea of Dread a couple of hundred miles from the coasts of Thyatis.

Replica Map (April 2018)

Sources

• X8 Drums on Fire Mountain (1984) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
  • “Map 1: Sea of Dread”, cover gatefold

Chronological Analysis

This is Map 26. It was published in October 1984. 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 1984.

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.

Additions

• Islands — Teki-nura-ria and three neighbouring islands, the southernmost of which is only just shown on the edge of the map.

Hex Art & Fonts

• Fonts — Baskerville.
• New Symbols — Compass Rose (simple cross with shading).

Analysis

The coastline of Thyatis does not fit the hex grid in the same way that X8’s map did. As a result, the grid is no help in establishing the precise placement of the map; instead, I have lined up the coastline of Thyatis, and obtained the best relative placement of Teki-nura-ria this way.

It’s worth noting that this is not a technique I have used often, as usually it’s preferable to line up the hex grid and ignore minor coastline misalignments, both for ease of placement as well as (crucially) maintaining compatibility between maps. However, in this particular case no other maps are affected by this change, so it seems the best choice.

Join in the Discussion at The Piazza

Come and join in the discussion about this map at The Piazza, where I am holding a “read through” of the Let’s Map Mystara project.

SaveSave

SaveSave