Fantasy Maps - WIP

These fantasy maps were created with a collaborative setting I created with some friends! It was created so we would have a consistent world to host our table top roleplaying games in. If you don’t know what that means, it’s games like Dungeons and Dragons where everyone creates a character and make choices as they would in a narrative. The stories are collaborative and build off what other players do. So we thought it would be really fun to have an open sandbox with little things we all enjoy to play in.

Here is the map of the entire world. It’s called Terrafirma and is partially inspired by the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons and also by our system of choice: Shadow of the Demon Lord. Most races from D&D 5e are here, such as tabaxi, kenku, hobgoblins, but are altered to have more similar flavorings to fit into the SotDL system. Things are a bit more grimdark in Terrafirma than they are in The Forgotten Realms, but it’s not all gloom and doom! There are plenty of fun, fantastical, and whimsical elements to be found within the world.

I think it’s also fun to bring up that this map is inaccurate. The point is it is diegetic, meaning it is a map that exists in the world of Terrafirma where people do not have advanced map making techniques. The map above is perhaps the most accurate in universe map to exist, though I’m working on making even weirder and more inaccurate maps. Below is a fully accurate map of one of the continents to use as reference for the dungeon masters by my friend, Kalyn.

The most recent maps I’ve made for Terrafirma are for the magical island, The Isle Arkanna in the middle of the ocean. The island was founded about 400 years ago from Terrafirma’s modern day to be a home for scholars and magicians to make advancements in magic and science. However, exactly 375 years ago, a horrible apocalypse happened resulting in the deaths of Terrafirma’s population. Arkannon, the city on the Isle Arkanna, was fully abandoned following this. However, in the modern day, people are now curious what lays in the lost city, and that’s the conceit of the current campaign I’m DMing. It follows the party as they explore the abandoned island with mysterious and dangerous magical artifacts. The following map was created before the apocalypses as a means of encouraging scholars to move to the island, showing off the various points of interest on the island.

But what’s the point of treasure without a treasure map? This map was created in universe by a scout NPC who had visited the island before the campaign began. The map is meant to be a work in progress as the party will go back themselves and edit it. The map isn’t wholly accurate either, the NPC is imperfect and fallible. So things are wrong or off and the proportions are different.

The following is the accurate map I will be using behind the scenes. Looks way different! Hopefully none of my players are reading this…

Many of these maps aren’t really showing off my skills to the best of my ability. But sometimes, what is more important to me, is finding what will be most immersive for players. It would be really odd if a character handed them a sketch of a perfectly shaded and modeled map made with materials they would never have access to. It’s about making sense for me, the immersion is my favorite part about DMing.

Thanks for reading!