Thorf
Explorer
Hello. My name is Thorfinn Tait, and I'm the cartographer working for Bruce Heard on his World of Calidar project. Some of you may know me from my previous work in the Mystara community.
I'd like to share some of my work-in-progress maps with you. First up is the central area of the world, the Great Caldera.
This is a region approximately 3,000 miles across, originally created by a massive impact in the planet's ancient past. Since then it has been eroded and moulded by the planet's natural and magical forces to form this isolated island continent.
The isolation from surrounding lands makes the Great Caldera a perfect area for settlement, largely because Calidar is imbued with a feral, semi-sentient magical nature, which uses elemental and environmental forces to repel settlers and resource gathering. The Great Caldera is small enough to enable settlers to largely conquer the forces of nature, and isolated enough to prevent incursions from adjacent areas.
Calidar's settlers mostly hail from its three moons: Manaan, Alorea, and Kragdûr. The moons are the home worlds of humans, elves, and dwarves respectively. The colonies eventually broke away from their lunar overlords, gaining independence and cementing it by forming the loose alliance that is the Calderan League.
The following images are close-up excerpts from the first map, showing some of the detail.
Araldûr is the land of the dwarves - a land of mountains and valleys. Somewhere buried underneath these mountains lie the remains of whatever hit Calidar all those aeons past.
Lastly, Meryath is the focus of the first Calidar story, In Stranger Skies. A meritocracy ruled by the formidable Queen Shardwen, this island nation serves the goddess Istra. Meryath has already made its debut appearance in Bruce's Calidar short stories, and it will eventually serve as the home base for the skyship Star Phoenix and her crew.
For more maps of Calidar, as well as tutorial articles detailing my world-building/mapping techniques, please visit my blog: http://thorf13.blogspot.jp .
Calidar is currently Kickstarting - we have already been funded, and are now aiming for stretch goals to make Calidar the best it can be. Please check out the Kickstarter page, and if you like what you see, join us on this merry adventure.
I'd like to share some of my work-in-progress maps with you. First up is the central area of the world, the Great Caldera.
This is a region approximately 3,000 miles across, originally created by a massive impact in the planet's ancient past. Since then it has been eroded and moulded by the planet's natural and magical forces to form this isolated island continent.
The isolation from surrounding lands makes the Great Caldera a perfect area for settlement, largely because Calidar is imbued with a feral, semi-sentient magical nature, which uses elemental and environmental forces to repel settlers and resource gathering. The Great Caldera is small enough to enable settlers to largely conquer the forces of nature, and isolated enough to prevent incursions from adjacent areas.
Calidar's settlers mostly hail from its three moons: Manaan, Alorea, and Kragdûr. The moons are the home worlds of humans, elves, and dwarves respectively. The colonies eventually broke away from their lunar overlords, gaining independence and cementing it by forming the loose alliance that is the Calderan League.
The following images are close-up excerpts from the first map, showing some of the detail.
Araldûr is the land of the dwarves - a land of mountains and valleys. Somewhere buried underneath these mountains lie the remains of whatever hit Calidar all those aeons past.
Lastly, Meryath is the focus of the first Calidar story, In Stranger Skies. A meritocracy ruled by the formidable Queen Shardwen, this island nation serves the goddess Istra. Meryath has already made its debut appearance in Bruce's Calidar short stories, and it will eventually serve as the home base for the skyship Star Phoenix and her crew.
For more maps of Calidar, as well as tutorial articles detailing my world-building/mapping techniques, please visit my blog: http://thorf13.blogspot.jp .
Calidar is currently Kickstarting - we have already been funded, and are now aiming for stretch goals to make Calidar the best it can be. Please check out the Kickstarter page, and if you like what you see, join us on this merry adventure.
