maps update

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The Lesser Evil
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Re: maps update

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kourkenko wrote:
To finish i think i'll use the idea of linking Jorpuk to the Frozen reaches. It could make Vorostokov way more interesting than a simple wasteland. The only cluster i won't change is the Shadowlands because nothing was created beside Addar.
A couple of potential things to resolve in mapping the Shadowlands:
-What percentage of the Phantasmal Forest belongs to Avonleigh, and which has fallen under control over Shadowborn manor. (The Phantasmal Forest is said in the boxed set A Light in the Belfry to be part of Avonleigh, whereas in the novel Shadowborn the Forest is part of the territory gathered around Shadowborn Manor by Ebonbane.

-The "pseudo-domains"- while imprisoned in Shadowborn Manor, Ebonbane nonetheless was able to extend his reach to corrupt a number of people connected to Kateri Shadowborn and/or her family through one way or another. One of these is of course Addar (corrupted through Addar liaison with a nightmare), and another pseudodomain belongs to the monks of Forenoon Abby (whom were killed by Ebonbane and reanimated as ghouls prior to Ebonbane's imprisonment in Shadowborn Manor). With such corruptions, Ebonbane is able to add additional territory to the land surrounding the manor. Avonleigh and Nidala are not among the pseudodomains, as their darklords fell to corruption independently, rather than under Ebonbane's influence.

See the links below for additional information:
- http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/TheV ... lands.html (John Mangrum's commentary)
- http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Phantasmal_Forest
Green Giant wrote:
* The Tree of Unending Lamentations could be the focal point of a haunted forest similar to Japan's Aokigahara. The tree could be killing people and turning them into incorporeal undead (ie ghosts, spectres, wraiths, etc.)
Building upon this, the Tree might act as a nighttwist (or the Ancient variety) from the 3.5 Monstrous Manual III.
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Re: maps update

Post by kourkenko »

The updated map, i tried to put an updated map of the verduous land but "image too big" each try... Wow, the two ideas about the tree of lamentations are just awesomes !
In fact i'm thinking about making the tree corrupting by there mere presence and not by eating the fruits themselves. And for the tree of venom, i would choose about a plant able to corrupt and poison the ground itself and creating poisonous/corrupting mist, as the old yellow musk creeper, draining intelligence and mutating people. For the ravenous, i was wondering about using the corean show "kingdom" (reaaaly good btw) i'll not spoil it but think about a beatiful flower who raise the dead as ravenous zombies (it's why this part is behing a wall with watchtowers). The zombies would be lead by a pseudo-lord or half-lord (in the show, i'm taking the last evil character to die at the end of season 2. The character is sooooo clever, evil, nihilistic and corrupted... It's a freaking good lord, way weaker than tsien but way more clever) that each time the I'cath army try to destroy the zombies, each time they fail. The half lord can even begin to make the tree change side in this attrition "war". For the malice, creating oni is a good starting idea.

For Choniyo and Chamok being a single domain in two different times, i just tought about letting a message or a hidden chest somewhere and it can affect the other domain ^^. Could be weird but really fun.

And to finish, the Shadowlands. I'll look but i'm not conviced, imo the cluster need a whole cleaningor perhaps some other domains based on Ebonbane (before entering the mist) or shadow itself. It's just my opinion of course.
Edit: ok i read Magrum post about the Forest and it's awesome. Period
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Re: maps update

Post by Strahdsbuddy »

Excellent job. I tried a similar project ages ago to include every fan made domain and island of terror in a Continental demiplane where everythign existed in a specific spot. I didn't get much further than blobs of approximate size indicated by the authors and a more or less rough sketch of where things would be. FOr me, the Cliffs of Vesanis in Vechor connected to teh Amber Wastes and the "second Core" grew east from there. I look forward to your continued efforts. Is Mictlan on your radar soon?
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Re: maps update

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Strahdsbuddy wrote:Excellent job. I tried a similar project ages ago to include every fan made domain and island of terror in a Continental demiplane where everythign existed in a specific spot. I didn't get much further than blobs of approximate size indicated by the authors and a more or less rough sketch of where things would be. FOr me, the Cliffs of Vesanis in Vechor connected to teh Amber Wastes and the "second Core" grew east from there. I look forward to your continued efforts. Is Mictlan on your radar soon?
Thanks, i was planning to do this kind of thing for a very long time. And i found the good program.
I've a hard time with Vechor, i never found it interesting, to weird for the core. It would fit in the Nightmare lands with Diabolis as inhabitants ^^.

Now i'm making a list of all domains and islands i can use. For Mitclan i was thinking using it as a part of the holy empire cluster.

Edit: Almost fifteen years ago, since one my players was (and is even today) a Spelljammer fan, i was planning to make ravenloft a world, an unfinished one. From space, it would be a sphere with seas of mist traversed by storms and scattered with lightning between small continents moving. And today i'll perhaps use this with my new team.

For linking the clusters, i put the Amber Wastes at the South West of the "ocean" of sorrow. Yutchanka the living jungle will link it to the Holy Empire (i need a better name). The Amber Waste will be north of the Sundered Skies. The west of the Sundered Skies will be the verduous lands and the west the Scattered Lotus.
Since one of my player is a planescape fan, the nightmare lands will be the etheral and i'll perhaps refine the elemental domains we have in the QotR using several of Mistmaster (if i remember correctly) ideas. it'll be fun
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Re: maps update

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kourkenko wrote:
Now i'm making a list of all domains and islands i can use. For Mitclan i was thinking using it as a part of the holy empire cluster.
For a cluster of lands dominated by the Holy Empire, you have a few different domains to choose from. Beyond Mictlan, there's also Cumbre de Oro that is a pocket domain with Mictlan (Book of Sacrifices, Worlds of Ravenloft 2012), Cabo Caridad (WoR 2012, was Charity Cove in the Navigaccio), Ixcapa (WoR 2012), Ukhu Pacha (Nebula Obscura, WoR 2012), and Igid Rabi-I (Book of Sacrifices, WoR 2012), though the latter represents an analogue to the Philippines and as such would be far removed geographically from the others. In fact, most of them have a thematic basis in isolation and separation from the outside world, which makes putting them together into a cluster may require some rewriting to take the existence of other domains into account. Some kind of natural barrier unsullied by invaders, such as the deserts and mountains of Tsuu-Y-Teke (Book of Shadows, Undead Sea Scrolls 2012).

For a listing of similarly themed domains for organization into clusters, see here:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... 07&start=0
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Re: maps update

Post by Strahdsbuddy »

While updating maps, I thought the gazetteer maps needed the color treatment. Information from a few web sources as well, particularly Gryphon Hill.

https://imgur.com/a/E2pH510
Last edited by Strahdsbuddy on Tue May 19, 2020 6:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: maps update

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Strahdsbuddy wrote:While updating maps, I thought the gazetteer maps needed the color treatment. Information from a few web sources as well, particularly Gryphon Hill.


https://imgur.com/a/NGLcto4
That's very highly detailed. I was curious about where Cosco Tower and Holz Tower (in Barovia), Kuhl (in Kartakass), and Everwotch (in Nova Vaasa) came from.
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Re: maps update

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The Lesser Evil wrote:
Strahdsbuddy wrote:While updating maps, I thought the gazetteer maps needed the color treatment. Information from a few web sources as well, particularly Gryphon Hill.


https://imgur.com/a/NGLcto4
That's very highly detailed. I was curious about where Cosco Tower and Holz Tower (in Barovia), Kuhl (in Kartakass), and Everwotch (in Nova Vaasa) came from.
Thanks for zooming in so close! Everwatch is the castle of the Rivtoff family. It's mentioned in Gaz5, p. 33.

Kuhl is from Death of a Darklord. It is referenced on the Gryphon Hill map, and I took Gomez's word for it, since I've not read that novel.

You caught my artistic license on the two towers in Barovia. They are the "bogie towers" mentioned in Gaz 1. I named them myself, after Gunter Costco (I, Strahd) and Vasili von Holz. So this map is the end result of the update I'd like to do on my own Core Genesis project (see signature) and I named them after the formation of Forlorn; however, their names are probably lost to time by the time the Core is finished forming, so maybe I should drop the names from this map?
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Re: maps update

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I made a map of Blaustein, taking inspiration from Domains of Dread, Ravenloft Third Edition, and the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer. It cleaves closer to canon size than it does to the size in Nocturnal Sea Gaz, and has some modifications to the Noct Sea Gaz geography to account for the size difference.
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Re: maps update

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Very nice Blaustein map!

I'm sending my players that way soon, and I will be using this.

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Re: maps update

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Joël of the FoS wrote:Very nice Blaustein map!

I'm sending my players that way soon, and I will be using this.

Joël
Thanks! I hope it goes well for you. As I kind of imagined it, the pirates are primarily concerned with defending the eastern side of the islands, relying upon the inhospitable and treacherous bluffs/hills/cliffs/ to protect the west side. However, if one were to breach said natural barriers, the west would represent a major blind spot for Blaustein's defenses. I added in an cave/abandoned mine entrance to provide an option for exploring the island underground, with possible exits on the eastern side.
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Re: maps update

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Here's Dominia ands of the nearby undetailed islands. The sizing and scaling is based mostly on Domains of Dread, the shape of Dominia itself is based on a combination of Domains of Dread and Bleak House, whereas the topography is almost entirely Bleak House. I put some green on the undetailed because there were some green islands really far west in the red boxed set campaign setting.
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Re: maps update

Post by brothersale »

Hi kourkenko,

Great set of maps. I have a couple of questions reqgarding the Amber Wastes map, have you considered adding Nekbert, Lazaralin (Quoth the Raven #25: A Hundred Shades of Dark: No 36 & 24), Adramelech & King Gore (Quoth the Raven #26: Another Hundred Shades of Dark: No 36 & 71).

Also could you provide some more details on the darklords of Nambeki, Katapesh, Osiron, Obsidian plain, Yatchunka and your alterations to the darklord of Dabu

I also have a suggestion for the Malestrom, have you considered Queen Azshara, queen of the Naga from the Warcraft setting
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Re: maps update

Post by brothersale »

Ooh i just had a thought in regards to the Pahmet, perhaps you should combine their origins with that of the Shabti (southlands bestiary), in that the ones in the demiplane are desendants of those that became jealous and condemed the shabti to decending into maddness. They would still serve the same purpose only now they would have a hidden shame that they don't like anyone to know about
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Re: maps update

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I too would like to hear to hear about the darklords to these new domains and how they fit into the revised Amber Wastes cluster.

I think it was mentioned that Yatchunka was going to be made into an entirely new cluster. If so, that might be a good place to put King Gore. Some of the material from the 3e Nyambe third party setting could also be useful.

I think Sabhur (Adramalech's city-state domain) would ideally be placed somewhere adjacent to Pharazia as long as it didn't interrupt too much of the border connections between Pharazia and the other domains that already exist on the map. I make this suggestion because Adramelech's domain is Babylonian themed Pharazia seems to draw some inspiration from Zoroasterism and Persia. A portion of the territory somewhere southwest of Ozimandias' fallen colossus seems like some prime territory, perhaps with a tiny window open to the sea open between Aljaugasba and Al-Kathos.

Nekhbet's domain might have already been added. I see a "Temple of the Sphinix" in western Pharazia. Is that it? If so, the only thing I'd recommend is adding a small community there as per the original description.

For the Maelstrom, if it's keeping connections to Golarion, I think it wold be most appropriate to have a darklord from that realm. Considering the Maelstrom's formation coinciding with Aroden's death, somebody connected to him in some way, perhaps an old enemy or a corrupted priest of his faith.
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