Tinin and Dalmatia, around Spalato

Not quite a wrap-up of this sheet, as the corner requires I do the next map on the next sheet to finish it up. Here again is a large area of karst, with the new area including just the top six lines of hexes. Compare it with this map to see where the previous post came short of mapping.  That area around Duboj and Visoka, plus some of the wild country west of those, was mapped on February 11, 2024.

This is a good time to show the whole sheet, so here's M.15e - Adriatic:

The "A" series of sheets would be covering the most northerly reach of culture for the game world, the northern point of which is, I believe, 82.62 degrees north. Though, probably, I'll never map that part of the world in 6-mile hexes.

This would also be a good time to update the google earth representation I posted on August 14th:

The blue rectangles represent the map I've done at the top. As the reader can see, the corner has been filled out and it can be seen what part of Italy was mapped. From here, I'll start marching north mapping a 120-mile wide swath, first northwest, then northeast after Slovenia, until reaching Poland, when I'll turn straight west again.  We'll see how far I get before I shelve this project again, but I'd like to at least get to east Ukraine.  I have this silly idea that at some point, with a large part of the map not being generated in dense Europe or in areas of extreme hills and mountains, it'll go faster. I know it's silly, but the idea possesses me.  It is certainly easier when a large part of what's being mapped is the Adriatic Sea, but those coastal islands are a big challenge.

Dalmatian Islands, around Spoleto

 

This is very different map.

It shows why Hollywood loves to film in Hercegovina. There are vast unoccupied plains, spectacular isolated mountains, nearby forests, a sea with unoccupied desolate coasts and villages with at least parts that haven't changed since the 17th century.

I do another section west of here, mostly just sea, but there are few islands. Nothing of real note, because at this latitude, all the important islands are in the map above. Ahead, there's another complicated collection of islands between Zara and Rijeka, but I won't be there until I finish off some inland stuff, on my way to completing Croatia.

Adriatic Coast, from the Gargano to Pescara

This is another part of Italy, with the Gargano Peninsula on the right. Pelagruza at the upper right is just a little slip of land, less than a mile long, but the Tremiti Islands right of centre are simple gorgeous. If anyone wants to pay my way there, I'm good to go. San Domino is about 2 miles long, while the other two, San Nicola and Capraia are less than a mile.

More work done on the October Lantern, the September issue is official in three days.  In the meantime, I'm making headway with these.  I'm done with Italy for the time being, though I might skirt the edge of it north of the Pola Peninsula in Croatia, fairly soon at this pace. I've really enjoyed mapping this; every effort gives me such insight into places I know only in the big picture, so seeing them at this scale fascinates.  Probably going to have another piece tomorrow; at the present, I'm finding the maps are a good head rest from the writing.  

Ragusa and Venice, on the Adriatic

Back in January 2024, I passed this way and produced the region around the Skader lake in Albania. I've been working around the corner this represented back then, which is now mapped to the south and the west, thusly:

This includes the coast line up to Ragusa, which was a competitor with Venice for a time, but not a successful one. That is to say it was an independent maritime republic, paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire, which protects the state from Venice (who is no friend of the Ottomans), while at the same time Ragusa was careful to cultivate close relations with the Papal States and Catholics (also, no friends of the Venetians).  This, and Ragusa's nearer access to the Mediterranean made it a nimble competitor to Venice, with a fleet of about 150 ships.  Ragusa lasted until Napoleon got rid of them.

Cattaro, on the other hand, just to the east, modern day Kotor, now a part of Montenegro, was organised as a Venetian Viceroy, acting in Venice's behalf, right there next to Ragusa where they could keep watch. Just 90 km apart, round about 55 miles, both were fortified, both were technically Catholic, both had the Ottoman Turks in the hinterland (though, admittedly, it wasn't a very populated hinterland), both were paying tribute to the Turks and both operated on neutral trade, with Cattaro paying out to the coffers of Venice.  It's a bit closer to the Mediterranean, but it's also deep up a channel where it could be defended.

Both are filled with spies, excellent harbours, merchant guilds hiring escorts, smugglers sneaking cargo past Venice or past Ragusa.  Both have vicious plutocracies ready to sabotage the other, while lots of money is available for paying out any capable person willing to join; there's trade, there's piracy, there's escape inland (if you can avoid the Turks) and out to sea (if you don't fall prey to the Spanish across the Adriatic). Fun fun fun.

Italy Began; Apulia, around Bari

I am working on the magazine. I'm producing about a page and a half a day, so I should be more than ready for the October issue preview to be ready on September 1st. In the meantime, I'm stoked to work on this, so I am.

Let's start with this corner of Apulia:

Not as heavily infrastructured as I feared, and of course there were far fewer rivers and topographic features, so it went rather quickly. Also, a large part of this is water. I see I forgot to add a road to the town of Le Torri, so I'll repair that before posting this again.

The density of the settlements, the black circle towns, arises because of their importance, even from the source in 1952. It was still more common at that time to take a train rather than a plain to Barletta, Bari or Brindisi (off map), to take a boat to Athens, Cairo or the Holy Land. Moreover, historically, all these places represented the most important trading route in the world, as the Adriatic proved to be dangerous to lighter ships (Venice solved that with technology), so it was best to park along Apulia, unload, and rush back to Egypt for more grain, or Constantinople or Antioch for more luxuries. That chaotic terrain, plus the madness of local tribes, made the Balkans less friendly to trade between 400 BC and 1500 AD. So this coast got rich as the most successful middle-men in world history.

I went on this morning and mapped further west. Below, the sheet map shows the background for context, so the reader can see where we are.

This is the M.12e - Rome sheet, with the Kingdom of Naples and smallish states on the right and the Papal States on the left. I'll be following the slanted line with this pass, concentrating the Adriatic and the rest of the Dalmatian coast for now.  I'll post the sheet map of Dalmatia's relationship to the Apulia map above with my next post here.  I guess that's about all. The independent state shown, with the heavy border line around it, is the Bishopric of Benevento, which even the Spaniards were unwilling to tax.

Albania-Macedonia, east of Dirac

 And... this is the last truly chaotic map I have to do of the Balkans. I'm so glad. There's still parts of Croatia and Slovenia to do to finish with the Balkans altogether, but this, this above... this horror show is finished. Yay.

I don't think the choice to do these larger sections is necessarily faster... I think it's more that when I get my teeth into a particular process, I'm less likely to put it down. One thing I find with a series of small jobs, when each in the string are finished, it's easier for me to throw off the next one for an hour, a day or even ten months. Whereas, something big like this... I'm not completely relaxed until it's done.

Anyway, I spent about 3.5 hours tidying this up today. and I think probably about 5 on it yesterday... which sounds like a lot. But when I think about the eight hour shifts I've worked in my life that have ended without anything real to show from it — and I know all of you know exactly what I mean — this really feels like time well spent.

So, this wraps up the Rumelia sheet for now, which the reader can compare with this from Aug 8, six days ago:

And it tidies up the Illyria sheet:

On Google Earth, we can see what's been finished overall in this corner of the globe:

Keeping in mind that everything in the upper right corner behind the red boxes has been mapped. It can be seen that I've worked a line north up to Sarajevo, then jumped way west through Croatia, which has steadily widened with each trip around the map that I've done. So I'm going to even that up now, pushing way into south Italy, then north, evening up that scraggling line. It's an opportunity to map a very different country (though Italy is going to be very densely infrastructured, all type-1 hexes) and a lot of coast. All of Italy is smaller than Romania and Serbia put together, but it's very long so finishing it will cover a lot of open sea, with Sicily and Sardinia being the last areas finished.

So, it's across the water with my next map, with the densest part of Apulia on the block.

Macedonia, upper and lower, around Strumica

My last map post of 2023 was of Cumae, at the top of this map, after which I took ten months off mapmaking before continuing on with the Balkans. I was just so tired of mountains, I couldn't face another, so I took a rest.  The upper left of this map was made in January, 2024... so I've gone from being 28 months behind my last pass, to just 18. That's fascinating to no one but me, I'm sure.  But it does mean I could pass this way again before the beginning of 2027.

With modern Bulgaria getting fully mapped with the last post, which I failed to say, I've started on 20th century Yugoslavia.  Macedonia will be done soon, after which I'll cut through the middle of Albania, not finishing that country, to cut my way up through Montenegro and Croatia, until all of that is completely finished. That'll be the end of the Balkan states, unless Greece is counted, which it usually isn't.  I consider that an accomplishment.

Not too much to say about the above. It's small because it's filling in the corner of the Rumelia sheet map.  The next map will be another section of 18 by 9 hexes.  I'm digging into the heart of the October issue of the Lantern just now, so it really is a question of what I feel like working on.  My deadline for the October edition is the 1st of September.  Just a reminder here, though I'll push it on the main blog tomorrow, that those wanting the September edition at the normal price of $7 should increase their patreon support by that amount by the 21st, otherwise they'll have to buy it on itch.io or lulu.  Those links are to the August edition; September isn't out yet.

Hither Thrace and Hither Rumelia, around Drama

I worked on the area along the top of this in February of 2023, though it really doesn't feel like it was that long ago. This new manner of sketching out larger areas is certainly more efficient, though the hills and mountains of this particular section was... trying.  The roads, though there were a lot of them, did tend to follow the valleys and therefore weren't as complex as some areas I've mapped.  It's certainly interesting to be in Greece, which the southern half of this map covers.  Thessalonika is just off the bottom of the map, not to be added (with the coast) until the next pass through this area.  I hate to think that might not be until February 2028.

Which brings up a point, as always: will it ever be finished. The answer to that is no... and I do wish that more people could understand the fact of doing something for the pleasure of it, regardless of it's practicality, completeness or even it's value, really. I worked on D&D for myself and my players, with no expectation that anyone in the world would ever see it, for some 25 years... and never once thought, "Oh gee, what's the point of this, it'll never be a product and no one else other than I will ever see it." Simply wasn't a part of my consciousness.

There are things I make, obviously, that I'd like to be seen, but really, that can't apply to everything in my life. I'm proud of many things that I keep private, that will never be seen here, or anywhere, that I spend time on, that are every bit as precious to me as these maps or any other thing I've written for the internet. It is a simple pleasure to design, study, copy and sketch out these maps. Sharing them here is really an afterthought.

At present, I'm a little excited to think that after about one and a half more passes at this country like the above, and I'll be able to start drawing out the east Adriatic coastline. I can feel my blood rush a little at the thought of it. How wonderful.

Further Rumelia and Hither Thrace, north of Gumulcine

This is a bridge map between two map sheets, which exist because the size of these maps disallows any possibility of working endlessly on one map.  I'll show the two sheets that it's a bridge across below.  This recent tactic of creating large areas of map in one go is great, but when that area covers more than one sheet, it's definitely problematic, so from here on, the size of "large area" I'll be making at a time will have to change, both in dimension and in some cases, marginally in shape.

The above represents the last of the large province of Further Rumelia, the eastern half of southern Bulgaria.  Bulgaria is essentially two large flatlands split by a mountain range that passes through the middle, called the Balkan Mountains; north of this is the southern plain of the Danube, and south of it is "Rumelia." For those interested, Rumelia is an excellent name to build a fictional kingdom around, and was used extensively in the 1930s whenever a film wanted to have a visiting emisary appear from one of those "Eastern European places no one really understood," back when Hollywood was still fascinated with royalty. As the population became educated, this sort of thing stopped being used, though Blake Edwards continued to experiment with it into the 1960s.

I'm just starting on "Hither Thrace," at the bottom of the above, called "Hither" because it's closer to the centre of power in Austria.  Thus, Further Rumelia is further from Vienna, while Hither Rumelia, including the large city of Sofia, is closer to Vienna.  Both Hither Thrace and Lower Macedonia (so called because its that part of ancient Macedonia that's on the Aegean, with the large important port city of Thessalonika) are very heavily populated, below unpopulated mountains (the Rhodope), but that's all for the next map.

Here's the Varna sheet, M.27e (the number being the nearest whole parallel running through the upper left corner):

And here's the one to the west of this, the Rumelia sheet, M.23e:

I'll be filling a goodly large section of that blank space at the bottom with my next map.

Thrace, around Adrianople

This accomplishes most of Thrace... and demonstrates a critical shortcoming of this kind of mapmaking. Much of the world, even at a level of 6.67 miles per hex, is very much like any other. Often we get this mix of type 5, 6 and 7 hexes with the occasional village, scored by a few hills and big towns. The result is "fly-over" country, which the players would probably never care about, which only sit as a unimportant, non-dangerous obstacle between them and their goals.

Part of The Lantern's charm is to take an area like this and give it life... not through the invention of staggering goals and hidden great dungeons, but through those elements that first or second level characters might appreciate: a hidden crowd of goblins, a rampaging wolf, some minor dispute in a village or hamlet that the players stumble upon. The very real, the very ordinary, the unquestionably difficult aspects of a world that in our real life personal experience are never easily managed, even when they don't require swords and risk of life.

But of course, it's not "heriosm," or "superheroism" for that matter, given the recent penchant for "gaming" where death is essentially impossible.  Which I am stupid enough to think diminishes the value of the setting altogether. I mean, why worry about the distance between two places, when essentially the DM can fly you where you want to go, at a finger-snap, ignoring all this dull... everything?

Byzantium, around Constantinople

A technically difficult part of the map, intensively infrastructured, lots of towns and the largest city I've included on any 6-mile map to day, Constantinople. I've started adding "market" points to the numbers on these maps, though this is catch-up work I'll do occasionally. Interest in these has dwindled, so I'm doing them for myself and a few others, not many, so it doesn't really matter. The map above follows the 41st latitude at it's bottom, which is why it's cut off.

I suppose that's all to say. Constantinople was, for about 500 years, the richest city in the world and arguably the center of all trade and travel everywhere.  Even in 1650 it retained much of its romance, but it's financial importance had been bypassed by the mouth of the Rhone, which became the crossroads of Europe and the New World, as well as the destination point for good arriving by sea from Japan, the East Indies and China.  Poor Contantinople... soon to be renamed, ultimately just a sad leftover from its former self.

West Bithynia, around Eregli

 A continuation of the last map to the east, sketching more of the Black Sea coast along modern Turkey, the west coast of the long province of Bithynia. The surrounding region of Constantinople is represented on the far left, against the sea, just before the 30th meridian... where, unfortunately, the map is about to bend to maintain the illusion of the hex-map portrayed circle that is it the northern hemisphere.

This section shows the inland roads form the hinterland, which is often cliff-faces and tangled forest, denying any easy travel along the coast. Even the section between Eregli (centre) and Karasu (left), where there is a road, is so unpopulated, with poor infrastructure, that much of the road is no better than a foot path or a rutted cart track. Easier to take a boat along the coast than to travel it... as that road is mainly for use by peasant shepherds and no better.  Good adventuring country, though.

Posting these larger map areas does require more preparation... though I admit, working on the The Lantern has consumed much of my free time of late. Which will be a steady thing, though I love making these maps when I can find the time.  I can almost see a point where the Black Sea is completely ringed around.