maps update

[brothersale]

Huh, i read that as the Malestrom already existed, and that when Gol-Ghan appeared it simply arrived too close to the existing domain (ie an imperfect fit).

Besides forcing a domain to belong to an existing world outside of ravenloft does not make sense within the world, if thats not the theme of the domain (it is a patchwork afterall), and by your logic the domain could come from the same world as Sargossa or the Wildlands

Anyhow it does not matter, it was only a suggestion based on the fact that Azshara is already tied to a similar feature in Warcraft, nothing more, it would be up to kourkenko if he runs with it.

[The Lesser Evil]

Huh, i read that as the Malestrom already existed, and that when Gol-Ghan appeared it simply arrived too close to the existing domain (ie an imperfect fit).

Besides forcing a domain to belong to an existing world outside of ravenloft does not make sense within the world, if thats not the theme of the domain (it is a patchwork afterall), and by your logic the domain could come from the same world as Sargossa or the Wildlands

Anyhow it does not matter, it was only a suggestion based on the fact that Azshara is already tied to a similar feature in Warcraft, nothing more, it would be up to kourkenko if he runs with it.

My alternative suggestion was not based on arbitrarily designating Kourkenko's Maelstrom to Golarion, although it turns out the link was spurious nonetheless. At the time i made the suggestion, it was because I thought what he was referring to was an eternal storm called the Eye of Abendego that covers most of the area that once held the lands of Ghol Gan. (Pathfinder does have a Maelstrom, but that's actually an ever churning plane of chaos akin to Limbo or Pandemonium.) Apologies for the ruffled feathers and confusion.

[The Lesser Evil]

A little bit more daring this time, here's a map of the Nocturnal Sea, using a composite of canon sources. Only canon or quasi-canon information only. I started with the sizing and positioning in Domains of Dread, but then made significant effort to combine details and weave together conflicting sources, so a fair amount is guesswork or inference. I'll post a version with netbook and homebrew stuff added in.

VIEW CONTENT:

Sources consulted: Book of Crypts, Children of the Night: Werebeasts, Darklords, Ravenloft Campaign Setting "red boxed set", Ravenloft Gazetteer II, Ravenloft Gazetteer V, Ravenloft Third Edition, Realm of Terror "black boxed set", Secrets of the Dread Realms, Ship of Horrors. Also referred to the FoS' companion atlas to the gazetteers.
Created in Wonderdraft 1.1; community assets used- Elvanos Cliffs, Ralia Textures and Fonts

[Strahdsbuddy]

Excellent! Thank you for sharing, I like this style a lot, especially the water effect.

Has anyone ever tried mapping the sea floor of either sea? The Drowning Deep must have some interesting geography, and it would be a challenge to think in three dimensions.

[kourkenko]

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

Hi. First, thanks you.

So to answer you, the darklord of Katapesh is coming from the pathfidner adventure path Legacy of Fire. Jhavhul is an efreet lord that tried to resurect Volnagur, an abomination spawned by Rovagug, the god of destruction (edit: the first spawn of Rovagug is the Tarrasque). He wanted to use his daily wishes to bring it back to life and use it to build an empire. One thousand wishes were needed.
I wanted to use it as the Wishmaster (from the movie),each wish he grant that make the target die bring the awekening of Volnagur closer but he’s doomed to be always confronted by an innocent or a paladin or anything that survive and bring the counter down to zero.
I didn’t put Lazaralin because i tought the two were too close one from the other. And since Jhavul as already a full campaign with fluff and scenaris, i find him easier to use.
I put Nekbeht the sphinx, as the lesser evil mentionned, it’s the temple of the sphinx, and yes, i forgot to put a small community close to it…. I will do it.

Ok, i missed Adramelech… i was working on the darklord of Narumbeki but i think i will take this one ^^. Good catch !
And i missed King Gore too… I think we can put him in the north estern part of Mubonyette or even in Yatchunka.
For Dabu i was thinking about using the anubis gnoll coming from the old Hamunaptra campaign setting. Since the domain creation, they lost contact with Anubis and devolved into savage gnolls, only the darklord and an handfull other seems to resist it and they are trying to find a « cure » for this condition.
And Yatchunka is a whole cluster based on fan material using aztec and inca culture as the holy empire for example. Domains isolated by the living jungle itself.
The maelstrom has nothing to do with golarion, its coming from pirates of the caribbean movies because i love the final fight between the flying dutchman and the black pearl insinde the maelstrom ^^. But i’ll take any good idea for its darklord, i don’t know the naja queen of Warcraft, i’ll check it.

And the Obsidian plain is the domain of an athasian banshee, i'll post her fluff her soon if interested.

Excellent! Thank you for sharing, I like this style a lot, especially the water effect.

Has anyone ever tried mapping the sea floor of either sea? The Drowning Deep must have some interesting geography, and it would be a challenge to think in three dimensions.

I agree with you, the map of the nocturnal sea is awesome.
And i'm working right now on the Frozen Reaches, Yutchanka and the Drowing Deep (but any help, advice or critics are welcome of course). And with all the IRL weirdness going on it take more time than expected at first.

Edit: and i forgot about Osiron's Darklords, they're coming from the pathfinder adventure path "Mummy's Mask". Hakotep the first (mummy lord sorcerer 18) and his wife Neferuset (oracle 17 of the Dark tapestry) tried to restore their lost empire. They stayed dormant for almost 4 thousand years until Hakotep's mask was found and used by explorers. Hakotep's flying pyramid was assaulted and put down, his generals killed, his armies defeated and the mask was lost.
In Ravenloft, the darklords want to restore their old empire again but it will be a really difficult task, they can't control the pyramid without the mask and to create a new army they will need corpses in great numbers. To obtain new officers for their army they will need powerful peoples to create unique undead.
As for Jhavhul the efreet, i choose them because a whole adventure path is dedicated to them, the country, characters, plots and ennemies are already made so, since i don't have lot of time, it's just easier.

[Strahdsbuddy]

Has an official map of Mictlan and its derivitve domains ever been created? It is teh one big cluster I am missing for my own project: the Map of 800 BC when the demiplane solidifies and islands and clusters exist on a map and can be reached by conventional means. It will take some time but I hope to have it finished this summer.

[The Lesser Evil]

Hey thanks guys for the kind words. I'll be posting a slightly revised version of the canon core in a bit (mostly reworking Graben to be a better match to its presentation in Ship of Horrors, as well as adding mistways) and a version with nifty netbook/homebrew additions (like Locknar Cove/Rutledge, the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer stuff, Nedraggone, etc.)

For Dabu i was thinking about using the anubis gnoll coming from the old Hamunaptra campaign setting. Since the domain creation, they lost contact with Anubis and devolved into savage gnolls, only the darklord and an handfull other seems to resist it and they are trying to find a « cure » for this condition.

So what is this devolution like? Is it a cursed transformation, akin to the goblyns of Forlorn? Some kind of disease? Or is it more of a cultural decline sort of thing?

You might also consider looking at Wepwawet's (wiki link below, in the chance you're not familiar) mythology for inspiration. His name means "Opener of the Way", who was a war deity whom came to become associated with Anubis and later Set because of his association with jackals. (It appears Wet came to be alternately believed to be Anubis' or Set's son.) In any case, I could imagine how gnolls could come to a corrupted version of Wep by thinking he wanted them to deliver as many people as they could to the other side by force/murder, taking his station as a war deity, helper of the dead to get to the other side, and the name "Opener of the Way" as evidence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wepwawet

And the Obsidian plain is the domain of an athasian banshee, i'll post her fluff her soon if interested.

Sure, I'd be interested.

And i'm working right now on the Frozen Reaches, Yutchanka and the Drowing Deep (but any help, advice or critics are welcome of course). And with all the IRL weirdness going on it take more time than expected at first.

Are you planning on having the Drowning Deep align with the Nocturnal Sea at all? (the Nocturnal Sea Gaz lists the various surface lands as mountains). Also, do you plan on adding any more domains to the Frozen Reaches and/or Drowning Deeps?

Has an official map of Mictlan and its derivitve domains ever been created? It is teh one big cluster I am missing for my own project: the Map of 800 BC when the demiplane solidifies and islands and clusters exist on a map and can be reached by conventional means. It will take some time but I hope to have it finished this summer.

You mean by the domains' creators? I don't know of anything release publicly.

[kourkenko]

That's a lot of questions. Let's go !

The devolution for the Dabu’s Anpur (the name of the Anubis servants) would be like a mental surrender. « Since the gods aren’t here, its mean they’re dead or abandonned us ». and they just give up after a time. It would act like a corruption for the body, making them more bestial the more they renounce to Anubis.
The darklord got the domain because he’s the main of cause of it. As a priest of Anubis he was a protector of the dead but the temptation was too high and he went up several expeditions to rob graves whose locations were kept secreted by the cult. He lost the support of Anubis and was hunted down across the desert before asking Apophis to save him.
Today he’s leading a community of Anpurs, hidding his true devotion behind a web of lies and wanting to protect the purity of the Anpur’s blood. Seeing the savages gnolls and Anpur falling to this lack of devotion fill him with fury and he’ll go to he will use all means at his disposal to annihilate them and hide his faults. When the truth will be revealed about him, Gnolls and Anpurs will catch him and he’ll suffer the wrath of the ones he wronged. I was thinking about the Mummy’s movie from 1999 malediction but I can’t remember its name ^^. You know, being mummified alive and eaten by scarabs.
Well, Wepwawet being the Gnoll’s god is a good idea. I’ll work on it.

For the banshee dark lord of the obsidian plain, I will use a templar character named in the Obsidian plain fanbook. I justI need to write her in a better way than “I’m evil because I’m evil”.

The Drowning Deep. I’ll try… But it’ll be far from easy because the engine isn’t made for this kind of map. I already know how i’ll make the isles from below but i’ll not be abble to follow their pattern. For the drowning deep, i don’t know what kind of domain i can use but since i’ve all books for the Cerulean Seas setting (which is simply awesome for undersea stories or campaign), i think we can manage to create good things. I know i’ll put an abyssal pit for deep exploration but beside this, i’m working to find a way to use the engine for doing a good work.

For the Frozen Reaches, i’m planning to use Vin’Ejal, the Northlands (i’ll rename them), Nedragonne (i know it’s normally in the nocturnal sea but it bring an aquatic elve kingdom with it and since it’s mentionned nowhere in the gazetteer, i don’t want to contradict it ^^) and Yatheeca (i changed the darklord and the tribes leaving here will be based on canada.).

For Locknar Cove, i’d an idea for it several years ago. Rather than putting it in the core, i was planning to make it an island moving, even teleporting if needed. To find it, explorers need to discover and use an an old compass that does not indicate the north. So rather than just go for it, players would have to create a whole expedition. I was planning to place it a majority of time in the eastern part of Yatchunka which is a coast on the sea of sorrow.
The pic i’ll use for it : https://i.imgur.com/74TKCoa.jpg

Has an official map of Mictlan and its derivitve domains ever been created? It is teh one big cluster I am missing for my own project: the Map of 800 BC when the demiplane solidifies and islands and clusters exist on a map and can be reached by conventional means. It will take some time but I hope to have it finished this summer.

The creators themselves didn’t create a map but their was a project here in 2006-07 : the golden peninsula.
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... =peninsula
Their is a little map at the end of the thread. Saddly, it was abandonned, i remember being enthousiastic about it…

[The Lesser Evil]

For the banshee dark lord of the obsidian plain, I will use a templar character named in the Obsidian plain fanbook. I justI need to write her in a better way than “I’m evil because I’m evil”.

I can't seem to find this fanbook. Is there a link for that?

The Drowning Deep. I’ll try… But it’ll be far from easy because the engine isn’t made for this kind of map. I already know how i’ll make the isles from below but i’ll not be abble to follow their pattern. For the drowning deep, i don’t know what kind of domain i can use but since i’ve all books for the Cerulean Seas setting (which is simply awesome for undersea stories or campaign), i think we can manage to create good things. I know i’ll put an abyssal pit for deep exploration but beside this, i’m working to find a way to use the engine for doing a good work.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make any demands. I was just asking since you mentioned you were working on it. As for the specifics on how to make it, Terra seems like a good theme to go with, altering the terrain/water colors as needed. Deep sea maps could be used for a basis in constructing the Drowning Deep- importing such images or using them as overlays.

https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/bathymetr ... nload.html

There are smaller PDF versions of the images, and larger tif versions.

Here's a couple of possible examples (you can just copy the images out of the PDFs and then paste them with any sort of image program even MS Paint.

https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/bathymetr ... LM-122.pdf
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/bathymetr ... 24-10B.pdf

You could also bring in an image of the Nocturnal Sea as a heightmap and/or overlay if you wanted to align the features of the Drowning Deep with the Nocturnal Sea.

For the Frozen Reaches, i’m planning to use Vin’Ejal, the Northlands (i’ll rename them), Nedragonne (i know it’s normally in the nocturnal sea but it bring an aquatic elve kingdom with it and since it’s mentionned nowhere in the gazetteer, i don’t want to contradict it ^^) and Yatheeca (i changed the darklord and the tribes leaving here will be based on canada.).

I would be careful with the Frozen Reaches because, like Mictlan and the related domains, there's an important feel of remoteness and inability to escape about them (despite the size of the realms, they are filled with empty bleakness). So I would be mindful when adding other domains of the cluster, such that they don't provide easy places for people to flee to. A sea could potentially allow for a feeling of escape through sailing off to other lands, so it might be helpful to ensure there's a feeling that ocean travel is about as difficult as overland travel. In any case, you found a way to cut off the domains in the Living Jungle from one another, so perhaps you'll find a way here. Perhaps one option is to cut off different "civilized" realms by terrain that is highly dangerous to outsiders- something like Huninford from Navigaccio cutting off Vorostokov and Sanguinia from Nedragonne and the Northlands.

As for Nedraggone, it's mentioned in the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer p. 122. It's in the northern Nocturnal Sea off the coast of Vechor. However, the authors make the comment the domain is usually surrounded by mists and only sometimes visible to travelers from the Nocturnal Sea. So it could only be in the Nocturnal Sea part of the time while still not quite contradicting the Nocturnal Gazetteer. Maybe it wanders, like your idea with Locknar Cove.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I was thinking about the Mummy’s movie from 1999 malediction but I can’t remember its name ^^. You know, being mummified alive and eaten by scarabs.

The movie called that curse the Hom Dai, and it also included removal of the tongue.

The last QtR (26) had an adventure based on the concept from The Mummy.

[The Lesser Evil]

Here's an updated version of my canon/quasi-canon map of the Nocturnal Sea, with mistways added and the shape of Grabem changed to reflect the details in Ship of Horrors better.:

VIEW CONTENT:

Here's one expanded with stuff from fanon (mostly Nocturnal Sea Gaz and the various sources it references). I haven't included all the little geographical places names on Graben Island yet, the amount of minutae probably mandates a detail map. Only a part of Nedragonne is shown here, as Nedragonne is freakin' huge for an island and the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer says Nedragonne is mostly shrouded in fog. (Tenebria is said to sometimes be reachable from the sea.) I'll post a version of the map with Nedragonne and a map of an independent Nedragonne shortly.

VIEW CONTENT:

[Cromstar]

For the banshee dark lord of the obsidian plain, I will use a templar character named in the Obsidian plain fanbook. I justI need to write her in a better way than “I’m evil because I’m evil”.

I can't seem to find this fanbook. Is there a link for that?

I believe the reference is to this netbook, The Deadlands of Athas.

For those unfamiliar with this part of Athas, it details a region known as the Dead Lands or the Obsidian Plain, which received one or two off-the-cuff references in official products as an area a ways to the south of the Tablelands. IIRC the only details canon sources gave us what that is was an area of land completely covered with wave-like formations of obsidian, giving everything the appearance that it was washed over in liquid obsidian, which then solidified over things.

[kourkenko]

Here's an updated version of my canon/quasi-canon map of the Nocturnal Sea, with mistways added and the shape of Grabem changed to reflect the details in Ship of Horrors better.:

VIEW CONTENT:

Here's one expanded with stuff from fanon (mostly Nocturnal Sea Gaz and the various sources it references). I haven't included all the little geographical places names on Graben Island yet, the amount of minutae probably mandates a detail map. Only a part of Nedragonne is shown here, as Nedragonne is freakin' huge for an island and the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer says Nedragonne is mostly shrouded in fog. (Tenebria is said to sometimes be reachable from the sea.) I'll post a version of the map with Nedragonne and a map of an independent Nedragonne shortly.

VIEW CONTENT:

The maps are really good. do you plan to put others fan made domains in it ?

I believe the reference is to this netbook, The Deadlands of Athas.

For those unfamiliar with this part of Athas, it details a region known as the Dead Lands or the Obsidian Plain, which received one or two off-the-cuff references in official products as an area a ways to the south of the Tablelands. IIRC the only details canon sources gave us what that is was an area of land completely covered with wave-like formations of obsidian, giving everything the appearance that it was washed over in liquid obsidian, which then solidified over things.

Yep, it's this one. Well it was the 1997 one but since i had a hard drive crash, i lost the original and all that remains were my notes. Don't take everything in the project, undead fairies and gnomes are kinda too weird imo, as the majority of NPCs described. It's why i let almost everything out to have a more "classical" obsidian plain. The guy at Athas.org created a bestiary for the plains and some really nasty uniques undeads are presented in the book.

Now the map of the frozen reaches

VIEW CONTENT:

It's a low resolution map, i'll upload a full resolution of all maps after i finished this one. It's showing the domains during summer, so even insummer the sea is dangerous to limit the possibility of gathering too much ressources.
So, Vin'Jal from the Book of Souls. I didn't change anything beside fewhamletsd because the darklord would depopulate the country fast.
For Vorostokov and Sanguinia i'll take the rewrite done in the fraternity netbook, six months of winter and the darklords also were rewritten. Qotr 25
Irisen is coming from the pathfinder adventure path "reign of winter" were Queen Elvana, a winter witch daughter of baba yaga, tried to put an eternal winter on the whole world. She did it to evade the malediction her mother put on her. in fact baba yaga put her most powerful daughter on the winter throne and eat her soul after a century to fuel her immortality. Her malediction would be to try each year to create the eternal winter, being terrified at spring and taunted by visions of her mother mocking her attemps. Baba yaga don't know where she's hidding but she's searching for her.
Ilsong is coming from children of the night vampires and the Pathfinder from Qotr 9, p31.
Arca from the Alanik Ray library (i think it would need some locations orlandmarks).
I was also thinking to put Lodin and shomolunga (a hundred shades of dark 56 and 83 Qotr 25).
And Yathecaa is rewritten completly. I based it on the north canada natives tribes and their legends on the wendigo. The darklord is coming from the shade of dark but i forgot to note his number ^^. So the darklord is an intangible entity during six months whre the cluster is free from winter implementing in weak minds the idea of eating other peoples if needed for survival. When the winter begin, the living conditions are harsh and when, anywhere on the cluster, the first cannibalistic act occur, he can take a body prepared by its cultists. At this very moment all the cluster climat worsen a lot, snow storms of big proportions appear everywhere and the survival conditions are harsh at best. The sea is unavailable because of the waves and the icebergs. His climatic influence expand in all domains and all under his domination are calling to join him at the location with the unpronounceable name (historical name for the legendary residence of the wendigo). He want to put everyone under his domination and control everything but he'll always fail because the of the native tribes. They know rituals to push him away and given enough time they can make the winter stop. His cultists have, when the winter is too harsh, to rely on eating their own, destroying the cult, when they survive the natives attacks, leaving only a handful of them at spring. Other darklords are loosing some of their powers during this time, unable to close their frontiers and feeling its presence (as an exterior shinkhole).
He's a powerful darklord, i agree, but the wendigo monster itself is a reaaaal powerhouse, representative of the biggest taboo and i wanted to do something different here.

I let the northlands out because nothing was really appealing imo. I don't like it. Some place are left on the map to put other domains, does anyone as any recommendations ?

Edit: any idea for the sea of moving ice darklord ?

[The Lesser Evil]

The maps are really good. do you plan to put others fan made domains in it ?

I'm looking for potential additions, although I'm having trouble finding ones that don't fit better in a cluster. I'm certainly up to suggestions and other feedback.

[Mistmaster]

Some of you has a mute political map of the core?