Kerch Strait

Both peninsulas completed, now, the south shore sketched out.  Looks mighty fine, I think... the terrain around Taman was simply fascinating.  The coasts aren't strictly accurate, but then, this isn't the real world, is it?

Sea of Azov

Took me until today to realise I had posted this map on my Tao of D&D, and not here.  Obviously, I'm distracted.

Anyway, in the interest of keeping this blog up to date, here it is repeated.

Itossia-Zaporozhia, around Itoskhan

Ah, coastline.  There's the north shore of the Sea of Azov, not entirely but for about 80 miles.  This also completes the enclave of Itossia and most of Zaporozhia... and were I heading out east from here, the land would become increasingly less developed or occupied.

Alas, I'm moving southeast, but only for another line of three hexes.  That's as far east as I'll go as I roll in a circle, starting off southwest from there.  There's a bit more steppeland, then the wilder parts of Anatolia will be a mixture of high mountains, forests and macchia.

Itossia-Kherson-Zaporozhia

There.  This benign landscape skips over three map plates, which means duplication and re-duplication, to make all three match up.  The image is put together from all three; I believe they fit well.

Having finally gotten this out of the way, I'm free to develop much of the north and south coastlines of the Sea of Azov, which comes next.  Infrastructure drops precipitously through this, except for the immediate parts surrounding Cherzeti (modern Kerch).  I'm not far from Anatolia now, which I'm looking forward to (at least, until I get exhausted with mapping it.

Incidentally, Itossia is, I believe, my first non-human region.  It is an enclave of a larger enclave called Cumana, occupied by half-orcs whose origin begins with Pechenegs and Cumans who arrived here in the early millennium.  It is the point where my game world begins to deviate from the real, as these tribes are "orc" in my history, breeding with the human ancestors of the Zaporozhians and succeeding it repelling the Russian humans to the north.  Thus, Russia itself was more severely crushed under the Mongols (larger orcs, similar to Tolkien's uruk-hai, but called "haruchai") in my game.  Most of our Russia in the 17th century was never conquered by Russia, because those lands weren't empty... they're occupied by thousands upon thousands of non-human tribes, who control lands both before and beyond the Urals.  Russia is therefore but a small Grand Duchy, that of Moscovy, as it was prior to Ivan the Terrible.

Anyway, that seemed relevant here.

Krivassa along the Dneiper

Been hung up, but still mapmaking.

The above connects the recent work on the Dneiper's course with that I did in December of 2022, when I started mapping the Dneiper from the bottom left of this map down to the Black Sea.  From here, I continue to move southeast to the Black and across the Sea of Azov, I think completing the Crimea east peninsula, the Kerch, showing the strait between it and the Taman Peninsula of what's called Kubanistan, in modern Russia.

The "swamp" land shown is moderate bogland, easily crossed on foot though damp and spongy, and subject to flooding in the late spring.  It is a topography that hasn't existed since the early 20th century, before World War II, so the Germans did not need to contend with it; of course this isn't what the region looks like now, it's a reservoir.  It makes a natural boundary between lands controlled by the Turks south of Kiyev and the Zaporozhian Sich, or cossacks, enabling the latter to strike along routes through the soft country that they know to be firm enough, in some seasons, for their horses.  This makes it hard to defend the lands of Krivassa against raiders, which makes for a good set-up in any campaign.  Obviously, such a wide, treeless soft-bottomed open ground, braided with hundreds of tiny brooks not shown on the map, can be imported into anyone's personally generated setting.

Kamenskoye-Krivassa-Vassia

Ah, broke free from continuously populated quarters of Ukraine.  Open steppe, goes east by southeast with comparatively little occupation, until growing even less populated to the coast of the Caspian.  As I swing around this side from now on, it gets progressively easier.

Kamenskoye is interesting; an isolated river port, few facilities (type-6), a natural backwater accumulating thieves, river pirates, smugglers, adventurer-merchants bound for the Orient and minions of all sorts.  A good jumping off point, a destination to find someone who knows something about an obscure part of the world... and a long and potentially harrowing journey to reach a poorly maintained and unsafe wharf-front.  Sounds ideal.

Technically, the town is under the suzerainty of the Zaporozhian cossacks.  I mentioned these before.  This fiercely aggressive peoples are based in the "Zaporozhian Sich," which are lands following the east bank of the Dneiper.  Their number includes Bohdan Khmelnitsky, whom some will remember is waging a private war against Poland in the time of my game world; as the lands to the south and east of Zaporozhian are, unlike real history, occupied by non-human orcs, haruchai, ogres and trolls, they have larger problems than the Poles... but generally, the sweep of the land is so large that there are ways to be safe, while those on horseback can see a long way.  A party on its own, on horseback, would surely be quickly outnumbered; a party on foot would have much to fear from a small cavalry that might seem to appear from nowhere.

Krivassa-Vassia

The process is steady and patient; the apparent obscurity of another collection of unfamiliar towns and river courses simply impresses on the consciousness how immense the world is, and how many places in it are homes to people who carry no weight in the minds of those who see only grand, sweeping arcs.

Imagine the simple Turkic tax collector who leaves from Constantinople in the mid-17th century, to take a crude cart from an unfamiliar coastal port, along some unknown river to arrive at a desolate steppeland town called "Leksan," only to be told that this represents the height of civilisation for a distance of 30 miles around.  How dismal.

Dneiper Bank-Kamenskoye-Kiyev-Ltava-Vassia

A collection of provinces in central Ukraine along the Dneiper... which created some problems.  I went looking for some record of the original course of the river, since during early Soviet Russia there were several dams built that flooded the valley, displacing thousands of people and drowning villages.  Unfortunately, I could not find such a map.  Apparently, no surveys were done that exist online; even 19th century atlases tend to ignore Russia, apparently as a place where geographers do not go.  Seriously, no map plate at all appears in these.  It goes to show what kind of unearthly place was the czarate before all when sour... and adds to the lesson on what happens when you continually treat a whole people awfully for century after century.

So, made do as best I could, laying the river out as rationally as I could and filling in the basin with slough-lands as I described before.  Some of the cities on the bank of the largest Dneiper reservoir (the 5th largest by area in the world) were moved inward, to fit up against the river.  The effect creates a messy, but somewhat unique landscape.  Unique is always good.

A brief word about Kamenskoye, in the bottom right.  This is the modern Dnepropetrovsk region, or oblast.  Dnipro, formerly Dnepropetrovsk, is a huge city, but it didn't exist until 1776, when it was founded by Catherine the Great as Yekaterinoslav.  None of the settlements in this region are founded prior to 1550... so my population calculations make it a large, uninhabited steppeland, dangerously exposed and thus occupied only by Cossacks.  The settlements are therefore encampments, with few permanent buildings, while little other infrastructure exists at all.  I'll be mapping more of the area soon, but expect it to be largely empty steppe, as the small corner on the map above shows. 

Kiyev-Vassia, southeast of Kiyev

These more obscure parts of the world, where there's not a single familiar name anywhere on the map, though we're drawing out an area much larger than Rhode Island.  We're still in present-day undisputed Ukraine, but in the 17th century the southern part, distinguished by the thick borderline, is the land of Vassia, occupied by the Ottoman Empire.  Thus there is a mix between Turkish names for the larger settlements and Ukrainian for the villages.

Kiyev is the last European region we'll see for awhile; hereafter, the region being mapped is a mixture of Turkic and Mongol influences, particularly as we move through the Zaporozhian hetlands, which are essentially all Cossack.

Dneiper Bank-Kiyev-Ltava-Polissya

There, finished the corner.  Moving southeast now, towards the Black Sea.

The "swamp" areas are more appropriately large sloughs or fens, where the ground is generally too wet to plant (not today, of course; measures have been taken), and where flooding makes dwelling impractical.  This last is particularly true of the large areas adjacent to the Dneiper, the large blue line left of centre.  Incidentally, this land is still too soft for tanks, especially in late winter-spring, which is why the present Russian push is through Kopol and Kherson to the south.  The country isn't great there for heavy mech, but it's better.

Kiyev became the centre it is because the Dneiper provided one good crossing point, which is excellent for east-west trade... particularly by water.  Below Kiyev, the old Dneiper, prior to the building of many dams, was filled with treacherous drops and water courses impractical for large barges, but above Kiyev, the Dneiper is a dream.  Plus, there are numerous other large rivers that flow into it, so that the whole area above Kiyev is excellent for water-trade; this made Kiyev a powerful collection point for everything coming south in the western heart of Russia, a natural centre for wealth and thus culture and religion.  So it remained until the Mongols destroyed everything in the 13th century, and Kiyev's defensive weaknesses became evident.

Kiyev, southwest of Kiyev

 

Took a little time to fold this in together; this spans three map sheets, overlaid together, to achieve this one image.  Seems it's been two years since I was last here, which staggers me.  I didn't think it had been so long; but I did take a long break twice.  Anyway, I am mapping the Dneiper Bank now (swamp and steppe).  I'll post that area tomorrow.

Czernowitz & Kiyev map sheets

I'll create a PDF of these two large map sheets together, plus the Ruthenia map, and put it on Patreon, but for now, here are each of these that I've nearly finished in the last couple of days.

The first, the "Czernowitz" map, has just has a few holes at the top, that'll be filled when I pass this way again.  You can recognise the maps worked on this last week, across the top six rows of hexes.

Here's "Kiyev," though the city of Kiyev is not actually on the map; this map includes much of the one above, but turned 60-degrees to the left:

That only needed the upper corner done, with it's heavily infrastructured area south and west of Kiyev.  I'll post a close-up of this area after I finish mapping Kiyev itself, which hasn't been done yet.

Kiyev-Zytomierz, west of Kiyev

Turns out, I am going to catch the city of Kiyev on this pass around before turning southeast.  This is a very tricky part of the map.  Passing the 30th parallel east, the direction of the map turns 30-degrees in the upper right corner shown; then another 30-degrees with the next three hexes.  Plus, this small corner, being at the top of the map, ends up being copied onto three different map sheets.  I'm working on sheet two right now so I can fill out the blank hexes above, then I'll be on sheet 3 to fill out the blank hexes there... and then I'll be on my way again, probably at a faster pace, because after Kiyev the population drops considerably and stays that way right to the Sea of Azov.  Then I cut through eastern Crimea, maybe or maybe not touch upon Kubanistan (the mainland opposite Crimea) then right across the Black sea to Anatolia.  That's when things begin to get interesting again, with mountains.

Podolia-Zytomierz, from Shepetovka to Zytomierz

Completing the undone parts from the last post, adding the section around Zytomierz and then partially doing further work to the east.  I have time, you understand; I've been let go from my job, so I'll be looking for another sometime soon.  Until then, we must put our efforts somewhere.

Podolia-Rowno-Ternopol, north of Ternopol

Some completed content and some nearly finished, spanning two map sheets (thus the double-labelling in places).

Lwow-Rowno-Ternopol, east of Lwow

This finishes Lwow County.  Steadily the land flattens as we map east; the density of people diminishes, though it'll build up again soon as we near Kiyev.  I'm certain we're going to miss that city by a hair as we map our way by it, just as we turn southeast towards the Black Sea.

The largest city is Krzemieniec (modern Kremenets), which was a fortification against cossacks. The city also suffered battles and violence when Bohdan Khmelnytsky rallied the cossacks in 1648. Driven by grievences and religious oppression of the cossacks and peasants by the Polish nobility, Khmelnytsky allied with the Crimean Tatars, won several key battles, and incited widespread revolts, leading to violent clashes and significant upheaval, especially targeting Polish and Jewish communities seen as representatives of the ruling class. The uprising is ongoing in 1650 (it won't end historically until 1657) so the whole area is in a state of turmoil... if player characters arrived in this, they'd soon be dragged into it.

Lwow-Volhynia, north of Lwow

 This rural, agricultural landscape features villages that are generally modest, centering on small wooden churches and local markets.  Most are Eastern Orthodox Ruthenians and with some Roman Catholics.  Some religious tension existed, even though there was an attempt to bridge Catholic and Orthodox traditions through the "Uniate Church."  There might be sporadic raids from Cossacks or Tatars, but these were few.

Lwow itself is one of the few cities granted Magdeburg rights, which gives it legal and financial independence from the Polish crown. This self-governing status allowed Lwów's council to enact local laws and control its own taxation, making it both a powerful entity and somewhat unique for the time. The city’s charter allowed it to enforce guild regulations tightly, creating a well-organized structure for artisans and tradespeople who adhered to strict standards in everything from brewing to leatherworking. The Armenian community, which had its own legal system within the city, governed itself through the Armenian Court, a local institution permitted by the crown—a rare legal exception within the Commonwealth.

Lwow is also known for its multi-tiered fortifications, which include not only city walls but bastions and fortified gates, such as the famous Krakow Gate, designed to within any battery. These defenses have proven critical as Lwow held out against multiple sieges. The city has been celebrated for its resilience during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, notably repelling a Cossack-Tatar siege in 1648. This successful defense has cemented Lwow's reputation as a bulwark of the Commonwealth's eastern frontier and earned it the personal gratitude of King Jan II Casimir—who has exempted the city paying taxes until the year 1653.  The image below shows the gate as it was, before its dismantling in the 19th century.

Galicia-Lwow, west of Lwow

 

Galicia, between Przeworsk & Przemysl

 

Actually finished this weeks ago, but with one thing or another, it hasn't been posted until now.  This represents nearly the end of Polish Galicia, at last, which has been a large and populous province.  The next one over, Lwow, is not much easier to work on, but I don't mind.  The early process of producing this map is featured in the following three videos on youtube, here, here and here.

Przemysl is one of the oldest cities in Poland, with it's history dating back to at least the 8th century; the name is thought to derive from the slavic personal name, which means someone thoughtful or strategic.  As it happens, the city is in a strategic location, on the border of Galicia, along the major trade route that connects Germany with Kiyev.

Przeworsk is a smaller town, founded in the Middle Ages, with a name that means "to lead" or "to guide."  This, I could determine, may have something to do with it being a leading settlement, but I couldn't find anything more precise than that.  There appears to be no connection with these two cities having the same first four letters in their names, in this specific place, though przem- relates to strategy, while przew- relates to leadership or guidance.  It kind of bugs me that there are no other large cities in Poland that have these first four letters, but it seems utterly a coincidence.

Like Krakow, Przemysl is at the navigable head of the San River, which meets with the Vistula just above the top of this map.  Both rivers together provide a geographical framework for the south of Poland, as they reach from the Baltic Sea to cover a wide area on the northern slopes of the Carpathians.  The Vistula IS Poland, for all intents and purposes, as it makes the country's primary trade network in the game's time period and allows for comparatively fast travel and communication in the western realm.  For that reason, Galicia is one of the more advanced parts of medieval-Renaissance Poland, unlike the more agrarian regions to the east and northeast.

Galicia, around Rzeszow

Oops, cut off the 'G.'

This finishes off the Nyatria sheet for awhile, moving onto the Ruthenia sheet.  Those who have achieved the $10 tier can see the combined Nyatria and Ruthenia sheets together in a pdf on my patreon.

This piece above straddles both sheets, so it was a little longer duplicating a two-hex wide band in the middle from one map to the other.  The overlay is what covered up the 'G' in Galicia.  This is still more of that province, which seems to go on and on; the next piece I'm doing includes a small corner of the province of Zerrwen, which surrounds the big city of Lublin — a sort of northern extension of the Galician rural farmland model, though of course slightly more northern.  We're just skirting the southern tip of it here, the least populated part of the province.

The Rzeszow here is randomly presented as one of those cities that was brutalised by recent events brought about by the Thirty Years War, which takes place between 1618 and 1648; for my present-day players, it's 1654.  The map is timed to 1650.  I know the long time readers know this already, but maybe there's one reader for whom this is the first of my maps that they've seen.

Anyway, Rzeszow should bounce back quickly to become an important commercial centre like Debica, but for the present, much of its civil building lay in ruins.  Thus the type-3 hex it sits in.