Sweet! I've been waiting for this to appear as a preview. It looks very good, like all of the maps in Pathfinder. I still can't wait to see a version with a bigger resolution, so I can see what all those little texts are =). Where is this going to get printed first? Gazetteer? Any hope for a poster map? Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere...
Am I just blind, or why can't I find Minkai on the map?
I'm hoping that will be in the map folio.
Am I just blind, or why can't I find Minkai on the map?
This is just a guess on my part, but if I remember from another post, Minkai is on the other side of the world. So it may not be on this map.
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I'm really interested in what Eye of Abendego is. Also, is that a genormous lake or just a small sea in the middle of the northern continent? If Osirion is inspired by ancient Egypt, what are Thuvia and Rahadoum (on the left of it) like? Mwangi Expanse sounds interesting - I'm yet to see fantasy version of equatorial Africa...
And than there's whole northern continent with at least dozen regions as big as Varisia. What are they like?
I must admit that, with each month that passes by, I become more and more interested into buying Pathfinder Campaign Setting. I love reading fluff text about exotic non-existent fantasy lands. :-)
I remember reading somewhere that it won't be in the RotRL Map folio... but I can't confirm it 'cause I can't find the thread...
I remember reading somewhere that it won't be in the RotRL Map folio... but I can't confirm it 'cause I can't find the thread...
Shoot. One thing I miss is having big maps to pull out as visual aids for my players. I end up re-drawing them myself and keeping them in poster frames. But I can hope we'll see a poster sized map somewhere in the future.
What a wonderful surprise this morning! Great colours, lush details, beautifuland enticing names like The Shackles, The Eye of Abendego and the Verduran Forest.
The greatest compliment I can muster this early in the day is that I am studying this map -feverishly and with great pleasure - like I am going to live there for the next twenty years!
I am also happy that there is still more to discover ... Minkai and Tian Xia are further away, and neither continent has an end in sight.
I wonder if the little red lines marking different nations are all that nescessary - as I generaly believe that marking borders in an official way, on the balance, limits the fun. You tend to loose the frontier wilderness and end up with border guards, passports and a more static realm.
I also hope that the 'known world' presented so far covers what is only a fraction of the adventure planet ... by my calculations, it can all fit in real-world Australia. This is another good thing, mind you -as there will hopefully be many, many more continents in the future - even if it takes twenty years of adventuring between Geb and Mendev before some new lands are described!
Back to drooling over my new home!
Cheers
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The Eye is something similar to a stable hurricane.
Yes, I was searching for entries about it on these message boards. Here's what Eric Mona said about it:
"I suggest setting Sasserine on the coast of Sargava, an old Cheliaxian colony along the southwest continent of Garund, which is acros the Inner Sea from Avistan (the continent of Varisia, Andoran, Cheliax, etc.). The colony was established before Cheliax's fall to diabolism about 100 years ago, so the people there have a nobler character than their relatives in Cheliax proper.
Sargava is sanwiched between the Arcadian Ocean to the west and the vast Mwangi Expanse to the east. The latter is filled with tribal Garundi humans who do not appreciate the colonization efforts of the Cheliaxians. Just northwest is the permanent hurricane known as the Eye of Abendego, which formed after the death of Aroden. The pirates of the Shackle Isles exist between Sargava and Abendego and protect the colony from Chelish aggression--for a terrible price."
If anyone can find similar posted info about other regions from this map, I'd be more than glad to read it here. :-)
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What a wonderful surprise this morning! Great colours, lush details, beautifuland enticing names like The Shackles, The Eye of Abendego and the Verduran Forest.
I mean, just look at all those huge regions on the map! And most of them are *at least* as large as Varisia!
I wonder if the little red lines marking different nations are all that nescessary - as I generaly believe that marking borders in an official way, on the balance, limits the fun. You tend to loose the frontier wilderness and end up with border guards, passports and a more static realm.
At first, that was my thought, too, but then I looked at Varisia: it's "borders" are established literally in the middle of nowhere. I seriously doubt you'd find any kind of clear demarcations there.
You can also see that red lines mostly follow natural borders: usually the mountain ranges that are obviously the largest geographical feature in the area and natural barrier between various cultures and (maybe) even climates.
Anyway, I think the lines are here mostly to distinguish one area from another, making the map more practical for readers.
Don't really have much to add except wow! The cartography is amazing on this thing. The eye of abendigo looks great even at such low reolution. I like the fact that this is only the tip of two continents and not the entire world map. The fact that there is still so much to be explored is great if ytou really want to just add something without disrupting the whole Golarion canon.
Glad to see that Osirion is such a huge country. I was worried from the map in J1 that maybe it was a very small country but it looks to be pretty large. Also props on the continent of Garund in general it looks really cool. It'll be nice if you manage to pull of an more african style fantasy setting really well as I don't think its really been done before. Not meaning to disrespect the Shaar in FR or anything.
Couple of quick questions if anyone official happens to look in on this thread. Roughly where abouts is the sunken continent of azlant (can't remeber spelling don't have books to hand)? Also what is your favourite country on the map? And finally is this the map for the gazetteer or for the campaign setting? If for the Gazetter will any more of the map be expanded for the campaign setting?
Just curious.
For the size, all of it so far can fit into Australia, which is about 2000 miles by 3000 miles. From a world design perspective, this seems like a good size for a continent.
For comparison, the whole world of Eberron is less than a quarter the size of our world ... which speaks to the potential for Golarion to be much, much bigger.
As for the dotted lines - thanks Sir Oliver - I thought the mountains and rivers were most often a natural demarcation, too. My hope is that the designers resist the urge to lock-down every nation. From a play perspective - I feel there should be no-man's lands between each safe haven, so that monsters can dwell and PCs can travel more freely. Just a thought!
Cheers
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The map scale doesn't match up with the scale of previously published maps - or at least, not with the first one I found, which is the Varisia map on pg 19 on PF#4. On that map, 1 inch equal approximately 75 miles, which makes the Mushfens about 350 miles long. On my screen, the Mushfens on the world map are almost exactly one and half inches, which is exactly 150 miles long. So something is weird here.
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As for the dotted lines - thanks Sir Oliver - I thought the mountains and rivers were most often a natural demarcation, too. My hope is that the designers resist the urge to lock-down every nation. From a play perspective - I feel there should be no-man's lands between each safe haven, so that monsters can dwell and PCs can travel more freely.
And it's true also that just because a kingdom claims a certain swatch of land doesn't mean they actually control it to any meaningful degree. For example (IIRC), in the Wheel of Time series, the kingdom of Andor claims the area where Emond's Field is located, although the Emond's Fielders rarely (never?) saw even an outlying patrol from the capitol city, and would be inclined to disagree that they are "ruled" by anybody but themselves. Even with borders clearly drawn on maps, there should still be plenty of opportunity for "edge of wilderness" type adventures.
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As for the dotted lines - thanks Sir Oliver - I thought the mountains and rivers were most often a natural demarcation, too. My hope is that the designers resist the urge to lock-down every nation. From a play perspective - I feel there should be no-man's lands between each safe haven, so that monsters can dwell and PCs can travel more freely.
I like to believe we won't have much trouble with that. For example, I really doubt there will be a clear border between Hold of Belkzen and Realm of the Mammoth Lords. It's probably only when you stop being chased by Orcs and start being attacked by people on mammoths that you realize you actually changed the region.
Now, Cheliax, if imagined as a fantasy equivalent of Roman Empire, might have more definite borders with forts, border towns and maybe even long, stone walls manned by soldiers. But from what I heard about them, they also seem to be slowly crumbling from within.
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The map scale doesn't match up with the scale of previously published maps - or at least, not with the first one I found, which is the Varisia map on pg 19 on PF#4. On that map, 1 inch equal approximately 75 miles, which makes the Mushfens about 350 miles long. On my screen, the Mushfens on the world map are almost exactly one and half inches, which is exactly 150 miles long. So something is weird here.
Good catch, I just asumed the scale was the same when I thought about the old Varisia map.
However Paizo has told us on a number of occasions that Varisia should be about the size of California, so I assume the scale for the Varisia map is right, and the scale for this one is wrong.
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On that map, 1 inch equal approximately 75 miles, which makes the Mushfens about 350 miles long. On my screen, the Mushfens on the world map are almost exactly one and half inches, which is exactly 150 miles long. So something is weird here.
The first map was drawn in Winter, and this was drawn in Summer.
Maybe they're having a dry spell?
Awesome map!
Anyone know if major roads and trade routes will be included on the final piece?
Director of Games
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Hey there Everybody,
Just a couple of quick notes...
1. This map will be available in the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer as a 4-panel poster map. The project has been delayed a bit, but it moving along swiftly now.
2. This map is not 100% final. We are still waiting on some changes to come back from the cartographer.
3. I will try to answer some of the questions in this thread as time permits... and I am sure others will as well.
Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager
SWEET MOTHER OF ....
DAMN THIS MAP IS COOL.
(me likey)
Has anyone found Falcon's Hollow yet? (or if a Paizian gets to this first, Where might Falcon's Hollow be?)
EDIT: Nevermind, found it.
EDIT2: For those that haven't found it yet, Start at the words "The Inner Sea" go NE until you see the word Andoran. From there, go directly north. Its the second town north.
A grand map, indeed!!!! I love it!
ONE question, though. The inland lake/sea in the middle of the northern continent (Avistan, I believe) seems to be lacking a tag. Other than that, it looks pretty awesome to me.
Here's one DM who can't wait for the gazetteer!
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Creative Director
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What is subject to change?
2. This map is not 100% final. We are still waiting on some changes to come back from the cartographer.
Everything on the map is subject to change, although the general shape of the continents and oceans and general location of nations is about right. But certainly ALL of the tags and the scale and a lot of the features are still in flux. Think of this map as an early preview of the final (which has gone through several rounds of changes SINCE this version). We should probably be a bit more explicit on the blog post itself, in fact.
So, yeah. This is NOT the final map.
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Director of Games
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A grand map, indeed!!!! I love it!
ONE question, though. The inland lake/sea in the middle of the northern continent (Avistan, I believe) seems to be lacking a tag. Other than that, it looks pretty awesome to me.
Here's one DM who can't wait for the gazetteer!
That tag (or rather the lack of it) is one of the things which will be changing on the map.
It is called Lake Encarthan and the island is the center is known as the Isle of Terror, the site of a great battle years and years ago.
Jason Bulmahn
GameMastery Brand Manager
and the island is the center is known as the Isle of Terror
Just curious, but are there going to be any GMMs/APs that take place on *booming voice* THE ISLE OF TERROR?
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I lost Jason's post, but I have a (minor) question as well. There is a land west of ustalav, east of Balkzen, with no tag. What is its name?
Oh, and here is a certainly incomplete list of places on the map:
land of the linnorm kings, varisia, irrisen, realm of the mammoth lords, sarhoris, world wound, mendev, brevoy, numeria, ustalav, belkzen, lastwall, razmiran, river kingdoms, galt, kyonin, nirmathas, nidal, molthune, iager, cheliax, andoran, taldor, absalom, qadira, osirion, thuria,rahadoum, sodden lands, the shackles, mwangi expanse/kaava lands, sargava, geb, nex, and katapesh.
All of the ones past (and including) osirion are on garund (the southern continent, I think).
The seas are the steaming sea, the arcadian ocean, the inner sea, and the obari ocean. There is also the eye of abendego.
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Creative Director
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Again... yeah. We probably shouldn't have posted this map yet, since the incomplete/error-filled map is going to cause more confusion than anything else. So think of it as a rough draft preview, and when we get the map finalized some time in the (hopefully near) future, we'll hopefully be able to update this post or something.
The "land" you talk of, east of Belkzen and west of Ustalav, is part of Ustalav. AKA: The country borders are another thing that are wrong and have been changed.
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Again... yeah. We probably shouldn't have posted this map yet, since the incomplete/error-filled map is going to cause more confusion than anything else. So think of it as a rough draft preview, and when we get the map finalized some time in the (hopefully near) future, we'll hopefully be able to update this post or something.
The "land" you talk of, east of Belkzen and west of Ustalav, is part of Ustalav. AKA: The country borders are another thing that are wrong and have been changed.
Just goes to show the amount of fervor your world creates. Take it as flattery, and not the annoying hounding of your time.
We all love and appreciate everything you guys put into this stuff.Can't wait to have a map in hand...
Yeah, I too am looking forward to a fantasy take on Mid-Africa.
And as for the borders I cant imagine over-civilisation being a problem in the ruin littered primal world of Golarion, its like a dire planet, everything seems bigger and meaner, more epic, but yet very close to the original, a supped-up proto world where mountains are vast, lakes deep and sky bluer than can be put to words.
I have a question about Golarian.
Will this be like the Forgotten Realms where there is a town every couple of miles and *everything* in it is documented?
Or will there be wide open spaces, some town names, and a moderate amount of detail?
I prefer the latter, by the way. IMO (no, I ain't humble!), the FR was overdone.
-- david
Papa-DRB
Grognard
My better half and me
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Contributor
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Tell us that the Map is made with CC and that you will be Making a Golarion Interactive Atlas.
I will not lie to you, so I cannot tell you that.
Photoshop and (I believe) Illustrator.
Will this be like the Forgotten Realms where there is a town every couple of miles and *everything* in it is documented?Or will there be wide open spaces, some town names, and a moderate amount of detail
Well, keep in mind that the Forgotten Realms predates D&D, so it's had something like 35 years to fill in all its little holes. When it first came out, it was more like Greyhawk (at least, it was like that for those of us who aren't Ed Greenwood), with lots of wide-open spaces and undefined locations.
In 35 years, if Golarion is still around, it too will have as much detail as FR. For now, though, not so much.
Just to ask again was wondering roughly where about the sunken content of Azlant? Is it on or anywhere near the map?
Is there any plans to produce anything taking place in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings? That place sounds awesome to me. I'm just guessing pathfinder wont touch that area for some time at least, but perhaps a GMM? Anything in the works?
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Contributor
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Is there any plans to produce anything taking place in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings? That place sounds awesome to me. I'm just guessing pathfinder wont touch that area for some time at least, but perhaps a GMM? Anything in the works?
Not at the moment, but who knows what next week will bring?