Hello everyone. I don't have anything new to show on the map itself, this week. I have been adding new things to it, it's just not far enough along to display the progress yet. Instead I'd like to take this opportunity to start a small discussion and solicit some feedback.
As an overarching thought that I'd like everyone to consider, I think it is important for us, as a community, to decide what the map is "for". Of course that answer will not be the same for everyone, it has certainly not been in the past. Some people have treated the map as a loose guide to where everything is while others have managed their corner of it with painstaking specificity. Some have used it as a method to display their in-game power with the size of their huge tracts of land, others barely care that their nation is represented on it. We're not a game that relies on a map the same way a TTRPG might, but the map does have a lot of capacity to enrich our world.
So my first question is just that: To you, what is the map for? What goals should we consider while we recreate it?
Now, a couple of questions that will more practically help me in my design and drawing of the map.
Lets talk about towns, ruins, and other landmarks
In the previous version of the map, population centers and ruins were designated with the following symbols:
So there were four available sizes of population centers and ruins which were mostly meant to mark historic Realms nations that no longer exist, though they were certainly used for other things as well.
I would like this version of the map to be a little more information-dense and give nation-owners a little more choice as they design where things are in their borders, so I propose an expanded set of symbols. This is what I whipped up after a little consideration:
Most of the descriptions on the symbols above are hopefully self- explanatory. I'll just add that the "important location" symbol is meant to be a catch-all for any landmark not already on the list - a lone tavern, an academy, etc.
I'm not wed to these particular symbols, it was only my first attempt. So for my second question I'd like feedback on people's opinions on these symbols. particularly if this is too much specificity or not enough, if there are important symbols that would be widely used that are missing and need to be included.
Lastly I'd like to bring up the issue of roads.
When Carrie made her original map she decided to add established roads and paths. This was something Doug "Remissil"Aucoin did not have on his version. This was Carrie's map key at the time.
When I inherited the map from her I continued that element of the map and Doug carried it over to his version of the map as well. The issue, however, is how much more complex the map has gotten over time. When Carrie made her first map there were only about 30 or so nations and they were pretty small, relatively.
Even during the later part of my tenure with the map, while things had certainly expanded since then, the information on the map was not so dense that the system of roads was out of control, though you can see it trending in that direction.
Doug made the map much more of a work of art than Carrie or I ever did, and in doing so added a lot of visual information to it. Forests, hills, mountains, and other map elements left very little negative space.
The above three pictures illustrates how much more complicated the map has become as it has spanned three decades and has absorbed the community world-building from everyone across the Realms.
So, back to roads. The question I asked myself, and now to you, are: what are they really for? There's never been any kind of doubt that you can get from one location in the Realms to another. I don't think many people consult the highways on the Relams map when questing and say in their best Maine accent "Ya can't get thar from here." Is it worth adding roads to the new version of the map or will it just add clutter? Is it worth still specifying which roads are paved and which are dirt? My personal opinion is that they are vestigial and we can move on without them but this is a community project and I'm eager to hear your thoughts.
So the third and final question is: Roads, what do we do?
Thank you for taking the time to read this article and thank you in advance for any feedback you want to give over the Facebook comments, through PM, or over the Realms Discord #cartography channel.
In service,
Jason "Aeston" Rosa
