Bosnia, around Sarajevo

 

Difficult to do these areas that straddle two different map sheets.  The bottom is part of the Adriatic sheet, while the top overlies the Hungary sheet.  Since I create an overlap, it means copying the content from one as exactly as possible onto the other.

Not much else to say.  The mountain fatigue of rolling east-to-west through Bulgaria and Serbia isn't going to stop.  I know it'll continue on up the old Yugoslavian lands through Croatia ... and while theres a brief respite coming as I cross the extreme west of Hungary and then Nyatria, I suspect I'll pick up mountains again as I pass through the bottom edge of Poland.  Somewhere out there is the big flat land of the Ukraine.  Oh, let the day come.

Bosnia-Serbia, Visegrad, Uzice

 

Normally, I create the posted map from six 20-mile hexes, but this is from eight — filling a gap created by my going all the way around my mapped area in a great circle, passing through Hungary, Ukraine, the Black Sea, the edge of Anatolia and finally Hungary and Serbia.  The above brings me back full circle and completes Serbia completely.

The above was especially difficult as it spans over three separate map sheets.  I did a better job matching these together, so the reader would have to look hard to find a seam.

The river is the Drina, which flows north into the Sava and eventually the Danube.  It isn't an accurate representation.  Doing the map incrementally, and the rivers themselves being extremely difficult to follow and read with GoogleEarth, as everything is a canyon.  Somewhere I lost the correct line of one of these rivers and to make it work, I had to "invent" a river connection.  Not going to say where.  It looks pretty good, and it is a fantasy map.

Part of the blame lies in that I began creating the underlying maps in 2004, before the invention of a lot of map-friendly content on the internet.  As such, I decided not to focus on exact geographical rendering ... which is, unfortunately for me, now possible.  Sometimes I regret not starting over at some earlier time — but hell, I was mapping India by 2011, which meant that most of the area I have mapped in 20-mile hexes was done in the first seven years of my effort.  It felt too late to adjust even then.  So as someone committed, I have to stress things like it being a "fantasy" and not being an "exact" depiction.

It's funny because unless we're from the actual place being depicted, chances are we just don't care.  Here's a video for reference there.

'Course, I know every error I've made, because I really care about details and the real world.  And the errors haunt me.  I've made my bed and it's too short for my feet.  The only thing I can do is hang them over and get the soundest sleep I can.

Hercegovina-Montenegro, north of Niksic

 

The karst shown here is a mixture of bare limestone and dolomite rock and scrub growth.  The region is full of sinkholes formed by the collapse of underground caverns.  There are extensive limestone pavements, cracks and deep, narrow fissures called "grikes."  An abundance of springs exist that form streams, many of which disappear through fissures and travel thence through underground channels.  There are many, many caves.

This is the southern reach of the Dinaric Alps, which spawns isolated limestone formations with precipitous cliffs, groups of peaks and plateau-like areas 7000 ft. above sea level.  These contribute to the overall grandeur and scale of the landscape.  The surrounding forests contained scattered hamlets and tiny villages, with only a few significant settlements grouped around.  It's a spectacular arrangement for low-level adventuring, with plenty of space for the occasional chimera or gorgon ... remembering that the southern portion shown was part of Illyria, on the fringe of the ancient Greek world.  So such beasts would be entirely appropriate.

This puts Montenegro behind me, and this is all I'm doing of Hercegovina for now.  Continuing north, there's Serbia to complete and then the eastern part of Bosnia.

Montenegro-Serbia, around Taslidza

This is west of the previous picture, completing the last corner of Kosovo.  The terrain of northern Montenegro is unusually irregular and can't be easily drawn on a map.  As such, the symbols I'm using aren't really accurate.  I suggest that anyone interested in real geography use their GoogleEarth to investigate the landforms here ... they're very interesting.

For adventure purposes, I love an area like this.  Surrounded by densely populated locales, with the centre a dense wilderland with the bare minimum of cart paths and trails to allow access.  Sections that are 20 miles across without anyone except whatever beasts or goblinish villages I care to include.  And a dungeon or two, obviously.  A party could run for ten years in an area like this, returning again and again to the small country towns of Dabovici, Jubaka and Janca for moderate resupply, except when they have to head out to really civilised places for unusual gear.

Still going one more section west after this, touching the east frontier of Hercegovina.

Serbia-Kosovo, around Novibazar

Some wild country in northwest Kosovo and eastern Serbia, with two tiny settlements and little infrastructure.  These areas are somewhat easier to design, though the proliferation of mountains takes time.  I look forward to the big open plains of the Ukraine, with nary a hill ... though when I return to that, I'll be missing mountains.

All of these territories for the last couple of months, with the exception of "Cattaro" on the last post, which is under control of the Venetians, are part of the Ottoman Empire.  Despite the geographical obstacles before them, the Ottomans did very well in capturing and maintaining these regions for five centuries.  This left an indelible mark on the land, both in culture and in the manner of financial expenditures and religion.  In the game world, these lands are fraught with repression, religious persecution, blood feuds and political corruption.

The hillpeople, who hated the lowlanders, adopted Islam and become Moslems; the lowlanders remained steadfastly Christian ... though because they were isolated from both Catholicism and the Russian Orthodox entities, they formed local orthodox or catholic chapters that remain independent to this day.

As a pattern for designing game adventures, I find this difficult for my players.  Most aren't invested in either religion or nationalism; it can be hard even for adults to engage in struggles based upon this region's abject hatred for that, on a degree that often seems absurd.  Western soldiers in Kosovo in the 1990s had trouble relating to people's motivations that were based on wild, unrestrained hatred and a desire for genocide — both of which are legacies from such a long time under Turkish rule, where the locals had little control over their futures or social change.  The absence of political control fosters petty discontents.  The 17th century Balkans are rife with it.  Player parties are not, and it's therefore with blank eyes that they respond should I introduce some narrative based on this village attacking that without apparent cause.  So I largely don't.  Too much of it and all the parties want to do is leave and so somewhere more sensible, like France or Scandinavia.

Albania-Montenegro, around Skadar

 

There, the Adriatic Sea at last.  I've followed this east to west path since Amisos in Bithynia, in Turkey.  At this point I'm finally ready to swing north.

I know they're just dots on the map above, but these are real places and I find them somewhat interesting.  Take Virpazar, for example, on the left-center, just off Lake Skadar.  A quainter little village couldn't be asked for, just 1.56 km from the lake's algae-ridden shore ... so, in fact, a little port village, though that's not plain on the map above.  The layout is plainly made for a D&D adventure, with it's circular group of houses and the all-important bridge.

There's next to no information on wikipedia, but a tourist link (written in Bosnian) translates as follows by chatGPT:

"Virpazar is a small town on Lake Skadar, with many attractions and tourist activities, and an excellent starting point for numerous hiking tours.  One of the main offerings for tourists is boat trips on Lake Skadar.  In recent years, more and more tourists have been enjoying bird watching. If you didn't know, Lake Skadar is the largest bird habitat in this part of Europe. Lake Skadar is a "bird paradise" with 280 species, including rare ones such as pelicans and cormorants. It's interesting that the seagull, as a marine bird, nests on a freshwater island in Lake Skadar. The rare pelican has become the emblem of the lake.  Don't miss the opportunity to savour dishes and excellent Montenegrin wines that will surely be offered in local restaurants."

There are numerous images of Virpazar attached to GoogleEarth as well.  I like this one:

I want to stress that I've deliberately chosen real places to put on these maps, any one of which can be searched for through Google, Wikipedia or other sites.  If you do choose to run characters somewhere on the maps provided here, be sure and look them up to see what facts there are that might interest your imagination.

Kosovo-Albania, south of the Albanian Alps

 

These feel like they're coming fast; I'm not pressing that hard, but I am enjoying the process.  I could stand a few less mountains.  The Adriatic Sea is now just 10 west of the bottom corner of this add, so the next post will feature a sea coast.

I'm experimenting with a new colour scheme for these snow covered mountains; the colour isn't clear on Blogger, but when I post a pdf of the region on my patreon, it should show the change.  The Sharr and the Albanian Alps are the first I've mapped in 6-mile hexes that are both high enough, and have enough snowfall, to produce an ice-cap.  There's going to be a lot of it if I get to the Austrian-Swiss Alps; pretty sure I'm going to skip past that as I round the corner towards northern Hungary, Bohemia and southern Poland.  Looking forward to mapping the big Lake Balaton in Hungary.

For the time being, it's a march up the length of old Yugoslavia, mapping Bosnia, part of Croatia and Slavonia. 

Though at first glance, each of these maps might seem much the same as the one before, but there are differences I can feel as I choose the placement of mountains, rivers and so on.  The whole reach from central Bulgaria out to Albania has been one hard task of wild, inconsistent country split by multiple, non-homogeous mountain ranges.  It's no wonder that ancient Greece felt trapped against the sea, as these sheer wildness lands took civilisation many centuries to unravel and overcome.

Kosovo-Albania, around Prizren

Made a mistake with my last post, misunderstanding the location of the Sharr Mts.  Where I put the Sharr are the "Black Mts."  The Sharr on are this corner of Albania, the first bit of that land that I've mapped.  That should give a hint of how close I'm getting to the Adriatic.

Added labels, so Serbia, Albania and Kosovo are clear now; Macedonia is cut off to the east.  I won't get back around to southern Macedonia for a long time.  Kosovo is about two thirds done now, with the above showing the heart of that country.  I'm enjoying the process of mapmaking again; it's been too long.

Macedonia-Serbia-Kosovo, Uskub to Pristina

Mountains and wilderness borderland lacking a label for Kosovo (on the left) and Serbia (top right).  The Uskub region at the bottom is part of those settled lands that gave rise to Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great some 2300 years ago.

I have to weigh in on the region labels and mountain names, to make them clearer than they've been up to now.  It's a troublesome detail, as there's never room enough to comfortably squeeze in a big title overtop the considerable background.  I tend to kick it down the road because I know where I am, but obviously I need to attend to the matter going forward, so I will.

From here I'm going to continue going west until I reach the Adriatic Sea, which is about 110-120 miles onward.  It's felt good coming back to making maps, and going forward I'll continue posting them in 40 by 60 mile sections, as each is done.  On to the Adriatic, and then swing northwest towards Vienna.

Macedonia-Serbia, Vranya to Kocane

 

Shows the southern border of Serbia where it meets Macedonia ... in a region replete with mountains and forest.  The route shown throught Kocane to Velbazhd (and Sofia further north, off map), is an ancient trade route between Salonika and central Bulgaria.  Historically, the beige region at the upper right is the ancenstral home of the Bulgarian kingdoms that arose in the 6th century AD, as it was a transportation hub between the Aegean Sea, the Danube valley and roads to the Adriatic ... called Illyria at the time.

The forests look like they'd be easier to render, but the hills and mountains, getting them more or less in the right place, drains away time.  Plus, the area above spans over two map sheets, so that after creating some of the map on the right, I then had to copy and duplicate it on the left so the two sheets would match seamlessly.  The above is made of two files; a little examination reveals labels that start and don't finish, or places where the roads and rivers don't perfectly match up.

We do what we can.

Macedonia-Hither Rumelia, around Cumae

No time, no time ...

Hither Rumelia, around Velbazhd

Seems somethings always in the way.

I know, I haven't been working on these maps.  The priority is the book, it's that simple.  But I'll go on making maps as I'm inclined.  The above is working along the western edge of Bulgaria, though the civilisation here is hemmed in by tall mountains to the south, cutting it off from Greece except along the narrow, wild course of the Isker river, shown flowing off the bottom edge of the map.

Added North and East of Munich

Looks so much better when it's fleshed out:

Wasserburg is a county attached to the Bishopric of Trier, way the other side of Germany ... so, managed by religious entities.  This is part of the reason why it's infrastructure is lacking, as reclusiveness is the order.  The land further on is a part of Upper Bavaria, controlled by Munich, but is isolated by the geography and distance from the central province.  Once again, it produces that effect where a heavy infrastructure evaporates like night and day.

I failed to mention last week that I've been working on these maps for just one year.  The first day I started was Feb 9.  I'd say it's been successful.

On to other things.  

Hither Rumelia, around Pernik

Reached the western border of modern Bulgaria at last:

Remember when we were just trying to go east through Ukraine?  That's a long way north of here.

The Sofia cluster extends outwards to the south, but it stops dead at Macedonia (which is why the border is there).  The isolation of that group of mountains adjacent to Sofia is more obvious now, with the plain encircling it.

Not much to say ... I've got to get back to the Streetvendor's Guide, while getting ready for running D&D tonight.  Sorry if I'm not going too much in depth into these parts.  The Balkans are not a fascination for me, just a series of isolated social cultures that were kept at each other's throats by the Ottomans for 600 years.  Converts to Islam tended to be mountain people, who had a distaste for the plains-people already ... and those hatreds between highlands and plains continue to this day.  Moreover, the Ottomans kept the various Christian churches of Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and such isolated (and played off against each other), so that even today there's no solidarity between either the various Orthodox or Catholic churches.  It makes for hatred, violence, constant squabbling and institutional backwardness.  And it's been going on a long time.

Hither Rumelia, around Razlik

More of the Rhodope Mountains:

It's been 3 months since I started this blog, in central Hungary.  Since, I've moved around in a circle through Slovakia, Ruthenia, the Ukraine, the Black Sea and Bulgaria.  I'd hoped to complete a circuit by this time, but there have been distractions.  I have to post a complete map, though the scale challenges the eye ... but not just at this time.

There's still some Hither Rumelia to do, but it's much smaller than the further province; we'll be in Macedonia on the weekend.

Hither Rumelia, southeast of Sofia

Real mountains, now:

The above features the central massif of the Rhodope Mountains, shown with the double-peaked mountain icons on the bottom left.  These are 8500 ft. above sea level or more, which is staggering as the plain eastward is just 840 ft.  As such, although they may not be as high as the Alps, they look as though they are from the plain.  But what's truly amazing, from someone who can see the Rocky Mountain chain from where I am, is that the whole massif is just 33 miles long.  That's less than the distance between Cincinnati and Dayton, or Salem Massachusetts and Worcester.  The whole range would tuck neatly into the San Francisco Bay Area.

Goofy.

Hither Rumelia, around Sofia

Into the heart of Hither Rumelia:

Several people have remarked on the stark break between civilised and uncivilised places ... and there may be some imagination that this is a phenomenon I've incorporated for my 17th century setting.  True enough, my populations are a fifth of the modern equivalents, or less.  But have a look at the above on Google Earth, with a little wider frame:

It can be seen clearly that even in the modern day that there's a sharp line between "civilised" and "wilderness."  Imagine what this must have looked like before the tractor could plow this much field, before the dam that makes the large reservoir bottom centre, before the spreading suburbs of Sofia, when the population density was much higher because there were no roads or even horse carriages for most people.  The old saw is that most peasants never went more than 7 miles from home; imagine these places, where 7 miles puts us behind a mountain 7,000 feet high.

In running as a DM, do make the most of that transition.  Say directly to the players, "As you watch the last house disappear behind the screen of trees, you realise that there isn't another living soul in the woods ahead of you.  From here out, you're on your own."  Stress it.  Make them really think about the lack of support networks and last minute cavalry arrivers.  Make that distinction real ... and with the distinction, that you as DM aren't here to save them, but to run the wilderness AS IS.  "Sorry, guys.  I'm going to have to run this savage land for what it is.  A place no safe person would go."

Mameceqtaw, around Wahkayoh

In response to Discord's request for more Michigan:

Not marked this time around, but the west part of the map between the dark yellow boundaries is an Ojibwe "tribute state" of the Memeceqtaw Country, what's known today as the Menominee native tribe.  Reflecting the Upper Peninsula, population continues to be minimal and the infrastructure reflects that.  Practical roads are local and specific between hamlets and thorps, rather than part of a widespread trade system.  Trade is carried on over water, along the coast, this being more practical than cutting a road through Michigan's rocky, forested wilderness.  Valuable products are furs, game meat, unique woods and canoes.

Hither & Further Rumelia, around Filibe

At last, done with Further Rumelia:

Here we buttress against the Rhodope Mts., significant in ancient history in that it cramped the Greeks against the sea, the same way the Appalachians confined America to the Atlantic seaboard for two centuries.  It meant that the thinly scattered tribes north of those mountains received little culture until much later, when the Romans came over the mountain passes and annexed these rich farmlands.  The development of Byzantium allowed constant access and transport in and out of these plains, elevating them to a rich province of that empire, and of the Ottomans later.  These latter control all of this in the 17th century.

The next stage is to build out Hither Rumelia, which is another densely infrastructured valley, but narrower, surrouding the Isker River that flows south through the Rhodope into Macedonia.

Hither & Further Rumelia, west of Filibe

More of that semi-wilderness cutting Rumelia in half:

Still, this is the western edge of the Maritsa valley, the river flowing through Filibe.  There's still more of it, but it'll soon be a memory until coming 'round this way again, when we map northern Greece.

Not much time today, and not much to say about the map above that I haven't said already.  Sometimes, it's all about plodding on.