Hero Wars
Issaries, Inc. |
The Making of the Imperial Mapby Wesley Quadros & Martin LaurieStage 1 - ConceptionWith our work on the Imperial Lunar Handbook, we realised that the geography of the Empire at a detailed level was something that would be of enormous assistance to us, as authors, as well as narrators for their games. A good map tells many stories. It was decided to make the map at a scale that would show small cities of between 1-5000 people.Stage 2 - SynergyThe sources of map information were scattered for the Empire. We had access to Gregs hand drawn maps, though we waited a month for some to arrive thanks to Canada Customs holding them at the border (presumably on the assumption of their being some danger to the state from such esoteric scribblings) as well as all the published maps. On attempting to link them we ran into the problem of the details and geography not matching between products. The basic map, hand drawn, was thus redrawn many times over with much tweaking and conflating of sections to make them fit. In all instances we took the information with the most detail as being the most accurate but where one map showed a city that the other didn't we would add the two products together. Finally, we had a geographical outline that worked on three legal sized pieces of paper.Stage 3 - UrbanisationWith the map at a basic stage we looked at the population stats for the various regions and began adding cities to reflect the population numbers. Wherever possible cities were added from sources that already existed, even if they were mentioned only once. So Molarisor City was added in Jarst thanks to the single reference to it in KoS. Likewise, GRoY, FS and Entekosiad were checked for city and regional names to add to the map. Preivously unkown or undetailed geographical features were added, some based on descriptions of the areas in other works. Eg Darsen was hilly, so we added hills.Stage 4 - PhotoshopThe basic map was then scanned in to the computer and was coloured and worked over with photoshop. The basic colours were changed a number of times, once due to a crash that erased all the carefully done paintbrushes. The depiction of the hills and forests was also worked several times to give a contrast between the areas that was obvious but not extreme.Stage 5 - DetailingOnce the file was created many layers were then added showing all the regional names we could find, the cities we drew on were named, the geography was fiddled with when we spotted mistakes. At this stage our joint effort had produced some tension between us and all sharp objects were kep away from our working area in case of an "accident". The subject of forestation is still a sore point.At this stage the glowline was added. We again used Gregs maps for the basic regions it covered, so the abscence of Aggar and Carmania from the glowline is offical for those that wonder on that. Then the radius of the temples effect was looked at and applied in a series of conpass drawn circles on the map until they covered the area required. Then this was converted into another layer and shown as a transparent red haze around the Empire. Again, this was tweaked to place the temples in more realistic locations and to fit other parameters. Stage 6 - Second opinionsWhen we had attained a degree of happiness with the finished work we sent the product off to a number of people whom we felt would give good input. Mark Galeotti spotted errors for us, Harald Smith provided excellent information and critiques on Imther and the Saird region which enriched it enormously.Stage 7 - GregWe sent it to Greg and awaited a response. He was very happy with it and suggested a few tweaks that added a HW slant to the product - using the Yara Aranis Rune rather than the old Lunar rune for the Reaching Moon Temples, that was a Greg idea. He also suggested using mountain runes for the main peaks we'd shown. On the whole though these were minor changes.Stage 8 - Public viewingThis is the final stage and hopefully we will see some feedback on the map and comments if possible. Enjoy. |
