[Proposal] The Transitive Isles

garyh

First Post
The Empire of Hzaka is on Allaria. Which is located roughly 2~3 weeks away by difficult sea journey.

Though I've deliberately not defined it; I saw it as a massive warmarchine. If it were near Daunton (i.e. not blocked by a significant expanse of the Transitive Seas) it would already have conquered the city.

The problem to my mind, for Hzaka, isn't that they don't have the resources to can't invade and control the whole world, it's just that the logistics of getting troops to the right places has so far not been solved.

Gotcha. That makes more sense to me. Close enough for PC's who desert from Hzaka to show up in Daunton, but not close enough to transport and land 10,000 troops in Daunton.
 

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Graf

Explorer
The map I commissioned is done. See attached.
 

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garyh

First Post
The map I commissioned is done. See attached.

That's a great map. Looks like we have (at least) three map options:

- covaithe's hand-drawn map
- Graf's commissioned hand-drawn map
- my GIMP hex map

We'll need to decide which one we want to go with.
 

covaithe

Explorer
We might consider having more than one. We have access to the idea that maps aren't necessarily very accurate. At a cursory glance, they're not that different from each other. At least, Graf's and garyh's aren't too different. Mine has a different layout that probably isn't compatible, so unless we want to go with only that (unlikely) it's probably out. Graf's has the advantage of being less explicit about the interior lands, and is cool, so I hope that ends up being one of the ones used. I wouldn't at all mind seeing a higher-resolution of garyh's version, maybe matching Graf's final one a bit more closely.
 

garyh

First Post
We might consider having more than one. We have access to the idea that maps aren't necessarily very accurate. At a cursory glance, they're not that different from each other. At least, Graf's and garyh's aren't too different. Mine has a different layout that probably isn't compatible, so unless we want to go with only that (unlikely) it's probably out. Graf's has the advantage of being less explicit about the interior lands, and is cool, so I hope that ends up being one of the ones used. I wouldn't at all mind seeing a higher-resolution of garyh's version, maybe matching Graf's final one a bit more closely.

I could see that as making sense. As for my map, I assume by higher resolution, you mean a scale of 5 miles per hex instead of 50 miles per hex (or thereabouts)? That's obviously give a lot more room to fill things in, and would go over many map sections (like the Zheen maps). It'd take a while, but it's certainly doable, and I didn't use any tools anyone else wouldn't have access to (Goblin King's tutorial thread in the Cartography forum has all the links).
 


garyh

First Post
Yes, that's what I meant. It's not a priority; I was just brainstorming a bit.

I think it's a good idea. Maybe we can start with Graf's hand-drawn map, and I can hex-ify Daunton and the surrounding areas. I (and others, since the software's all free) can chip away at the rest of Daunton's island and the other islands as time and DM/plot need requires.
 


Binder Fred

3 rings to bind them all!
Greetings all,
great setting, taking shape nicely I think! It's certainly gotten the old creative juice flowing. :)

I'm perticularly intrigued by the "transitive sea" bit of it. I don't know if anybody's given some thought to it yet, but here goes... If big islands "move" relative to another then :

1) BOAT ISLANDS : smaller, (faster?), ones might as well. I'm thinking rocky icebergs going from backyard to mountain size that (randomly?) wander the seaways, hazard for navigation, home to small fishing/raiding/scholarly comunities, strange keeps, lone hermits and/or fantastic creatures.

2) THE GRINDSTONES : If we're talking movement, then eventually, inevitably we're talking about *collissions*. Most of them would be slanting, grinding, earthquaky affairs (though head-on jams/mountain building, followed eventually by mountain *parting*, could occur). We could posit a chain of islands that are always chaotically churning around each other, parting and closing, passing through each other, grinding themselves away into smaller and smaller chunks. Navigating between would be chancy at best, jumping from one to the next a game for the brave. The entire chain might itself be on a long eliptical orbit around the main islands, coming back for a visit say every 50 years or so : think comet, think earthquakes, think rocks in a pinball machine! The Grindstones would be an ideal base for an entropy-worshipping bunch (something like Planescape's Doomguards maybe (always did like them :)).

Main text said:
...is studded with many islands, island chains and other geographic oddities that span a range of regions; even the fluid connections between islands shift over time, usually slowly, but occasionally with great speed.

3) JELLY SWAMP : when I first read this I thought you meant the *fluidity* of the water changed... and then I thought : why not? Which leads me to... bacteria. When enough food is avaible/XYZ conditions are met, a certain kind of TI bacteria multiplies and gels, forming zones of jelly sea, sometimes hard enough to walk on (if somewhat slushy and highly wobbly). Most of it though is floating, muddy, sink to your doom stuff clumped around the more suportive bits. I see some of it floating below the surface (channels), some of it just above or below, home to sometimes expansive vegetation : voila! a floating swamp, a sargasso sea navigable only with shallow-going boats (canoes, etc) or by somehow clearing the stuff from in front of your ship. You can have sea-going free-floating varieties or anchored to a shallow bottom varieties, perhaps forming a crown around a central island, atoll-like. An ideal environment for aboleth and their slime magic, kua-toa, sahuagin, etc. Under-water chambers/pods/bubbles and/or passages are of course the norm. :)

Binder Fred, hoping that was helpful.
Next, underwater...
 
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