The Map of Absalom

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Absalom is a big, big city—several miles across and home to over 300,000 people. Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom is our first detailed look at this city and our first chance to map it. This full-page map should give you a sense of the city’s size, population, and majesty.

And now, a little background on this map.

Absalom is the idea of Jason Bulmahn, lead designer at Paizo. He once studied to be an architect, but he felt there was more fame and poverty in the world of professional game design. His years of grueling apprenticeship to Henri Ringelheim, Master Architect of Stuttgart, gave Jason a hunched posture and the inability to see in illumination brighter than tallow candlelight, but from time to time he is able to tap into the small amount of talent his master begrudged him, and create fine maps that are like Archimedes’ lever for your imagination.

One such map is the rough version of Absalom, City at the Center of the World. Note the square grid, a tool used by all devotees of the draftsman’s pencil. The heavy black lines, representing the cartographer’s stern intent. The green district borders and blue lines demarking the edges of the ship graveyard, attempts to inject a moment of life and joy into his work. The labels in red, representing the very blood he spilled to bring this map to completion. You can almost imagine him pausing, pen in hand, to wipe the sweat from his brow with an old rag, then patiently lowering his pen to the paper, as the nearby candle sputters in the late hours of the night. This is the work of one who loves his craft.

Plus, it almost looks like some sort of weird crab monster.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer