Some Manirian Maps

[Nevermet]

I've been teaching myself Inkscape to make maps, and I've been learning by making my own SVG file map of Maniria.

I thought I'd share 3 maps that highlight the catastrophes of the region.

First, here is basic map of 3rd Age Maniria

Second, there is a map of 2nd Age Maniria, before the flood.

And third, there is a map of Maniria after the Reforestation by the Elves.

The difference between the 1st and second maps does a good job of highlight just how horrific and deadly that must have been.

The Reforestation map, OTOH, isn't quite as immediate, but it is still a massive problem, as agriculture and transportation will likely be devastated by it.

 

 

Edited July 19 by Nevermet

[Snugz]

I like how Ramalia gets spared from the Reforestation. Makes sense. Now there are some fun gaming opportunities to explore!

[mfbrandi]

12 hours ago, Nevermet said:

I’ve been teaching myself Inkscape to make maps

Hooray for Inkscape!

I am sure there are people here who would appreciate the vector graphics (as SVG or PDF) … if you wanted to share them.

[Nevermet]

7 hours ago, Snugz said:

I like how Ramalia gets spared from the Reforestation. Makes sense. Now there are some fun gaming opportunities to explore!

According to the Guide, the Reforestation attempts to regrow the Greatwood that existed at the Dawn, and eastern Ramalia was not part of the Greatwood.  The Valekos area was, but I'm working off the assumption that the undefined alliance between the Ramalian rulers and Tarinwood will spare Bizos.

 

The other thing I did in the name of MGF is I used the 2nd Age map in the Maniria chapter to identify all GL ruins, above or below the water line.  So, yeah, plenty of stuff in Ramalia to do.

[Nevermet]

3 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Hooray for Inkscape!

I am sure there are people here who would appreciate the vector graphics (as SVG or PDF) … if you wanted to share them.

Heh, maybe I should just post the map file as a JC publication LOL

Though to be clear, the map is really centered on Maniria for my own purposes.  In retrospect, perhaps I should have fully included the Holy Country, Dragon Pass, and Prax, but I didn't.

[mfbrandi]

2 hours ago, Nevermet said:

for my own purposes

As it should be!

[Nevermet]

Added my first non-Guide elements to the map:

1. Additional minor streams (in black)
2. Meetinghall Mountain / Island (white triangle in the center-south)
3. Added a handful of things from Blood & Gold

 

[Nevermet]

Sadly, I'm toward the end of what I should do right now with maps.  I need to get back to reading books.

However, here's the bits specific to near Kaxtorplose.  Here's the map in the Guide:

 

So, here's my second age map version, including the faint river that goes from the sea through Ulanin, Kaxtorplose, to Doaer:

   

Focusing that river, I started wondering about it, and I decided it was likely 1 of the paths Arkat's forces took to free Kaxtorplose (that would explain why there's a town named Ulanin, a pre-Dawn hero from Hendrikiland.  Anyway, it probably had some interesting associations with separating life and death, rightness and wrongness, etc, so I decided to use part of the river's banks as the new shore of the mournsea.

 

 

 

 

[Nevermet]

BTW, while I admit some of my activity here is acting like a 5 year old who proudly wants something he drew on the fridge, that's not the only motivation.  These maps are part of a desire on my part to detail the history of Maniria from the Sinking of Slontos up to the "present" in RQG publications.  It's useful therefore to think through the geography as I worry about social and historical dynamics.  I have most official Glorantha pubs from Hero Wars RPG on.  So if I've missed something mentioned somewhere, I'd love to know.  If I misinterpreted something, or at least interpreted different than others, I would love to know.

[Cassius]

Great maps, thank you very much for sharing them !

[Nevermet]

Here's another one: A culture map:

1. Aldryami
   • A: Tarinwood
   • B: Arstola
2. Hsunchen
   • A: Pralori
   • B: Mraloti
3. New Fens
   • A: Caratan
   • B: Handra
4. Ramalian
   • A: Smelch
   • B: Khorst
   • C: Velekos
5. Manirian
   • A: Bastis
   • B: Nimistor
   • C:Solonthi
   • D :Legrosi
   • E: Ditali
6. Ryzel Dragonewts
7. Wenelian New Coast
   • A: Kaxtorplose
   • B: Fay Jee
   • C :Maldros
8. Ice Peak Uz
9. Western Hills
   • A: Pelushi
   • B: Colonti

 

A few notes:

• I'm using one or two names from Blood over Gold
• The Ditali are culturally similar, but there are a few distinct polities. There's the Ditali kingdom, rules by Tarvel Peg, and then there's the clans around Azure Lake, the Swarz who are aligned with Bath, etc.
• Handra is a multicultural city founded by refugees from Ralios. However, the baseline culture are a people who survived the Sinking and became inhabitants of the Noshain river and surrounding wetlands.  Further upstream, one gets to Caratan, which is more insular and also more forested than wetland.
• I'm aware that Ramalia is an "enemy culture," but they're included in the name of comprehensiveness. I also am unsure about the history of Khorst & Smelch, but I strongly suspect that they have a shared history in many ways.  Also, I'm assuming that the straight between Alatan Island and the mainland was technically navigable between the Closing and Dormal.
• Looking at the map just now, it occurs to me that I probably should have included the islanders of the Mournsea, either as a separate culture or as a subcategory of the Wenelian New Coast

Edited August 12 by Nevermet

[Nevermet]

Finally got around to something I should have done a while ago: resized everything to a common scale. Now the map in Inkscape uses a scale of 1cm = 50km (1:5,000,000), though I can export it at whatever size/scale/resolution I want, export sections of it, etc. But its good to have a standard baseline.

[Nevermet]

Added in the Manirian Road / Shipping routes:

A few notes:

• This map does not differentiate magnitude of trade yet.  
• The Mournsea is not good for sailing, with many areas barely below the surface. Thus, I have tried to put the shipping lanes roughly on top of old rivers and the pre-1000 ST Porluftan sea.
  • The fact Handra sits on the Noshain means its probably get a better ability to be a port than either Kaxtorplose (the earth just fell away to its south) or Peelo (vapors from the poison shore are likely a constant hazard).  Fay Jee could possibly have the geography to allow for a deeper port than Handra.
• Valekos and Smelch are not really part of major trade.  Smelch appears committed to piracy, and Ramalia is basically a hermit kingdom.  I'm sure goods have been imported or exported, but there isn't an institutionalized trade network.
• Interestingly, while the Guide talks about trade between the Trader Princes and both the Dragonewts and the Elves, there is no mention of trade with the Trolls. Rather, the trolls are portrayed as complete belligerents. 
  • This fits with a pet IMG theory of mine, which is that Ceselein was dismembered in an attempt to recreate Arkat's feat of becoming a troll, but Caselein failed. I also suspect this ties into him going to the Underworld and back, but who knows.
• Before Greymayne, Staton was known as the "Eastern Gateway of the Manirian Road", and it just skips over to Dizbos in Esrolia. I suspect some trade continues, despite Greymayne's actions and the Opening.
• There is no trade down the Gorphing river valley from Thonble to Storos, and Thoble is actively at war with the Trader Princes, and funded by Caladraland. (As an aside, Kithma would be a great place for PC activity)
• There is no discussion of the relationship between the Trader Princes and the volcano worshippers of the West Hills.  Given they are culturally aligned with Caladraland, and Caladraland doesn't get along with the Trader Princes, I have decided not to include much trader through this region. The main exception are precarious routes to get to the Dwarves of Gemborg.  I'm sure some people also try to follow the Volior to Peelo, so I included it, but that's probably not a lucrative route either.
•  

 

[Sir_Godspeed]

Taking this last map at face value, wouldn't Drom have been LUDICROUSLY prosperous during the Closing? Or was it not able to capitalize on the seeming near-monopoly due to being treated like a waystop rather than a true end/start market?

Edited August 28 by Sir_Godspeed

[Nevermet]

I'm sure Drom got wealthy too, as the first settlement after the Manirian Road, but the Pralori... those Hsunchen who ride their elk as mounts, were a powerful military force for most of time, etc*... they were the "western gateway" that got a massive amount of wealth from the Manirian Road, as they charged tolls for the caravans to travel through their lands.

 

* My point is the Pralori are rather unusual Hsunchen

[Sir_Godspeed]

That's true. Is there any mention of what kind of wealth they accumulated? Are the Pralori fully nomadic, or do they keep any kind of fixed settlements? Is it a case of them rigging out their tents with awesome rugs, silverware and chests full of luxury goods, or was there some further kind of investment going on? (ie. paying for fortifications, temple construction or something similar).

[Nevermet]

3 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

That's true. Is there any mention of what kind of wealth they accumulated? Are the Pralori fully nomadic, or do they keep any kind of fixed settlements? Is it a case of them rigging out their tents with awesome rugs, silverware and chests full of luxury goods, or was there some further kind of investment going on? (ie. paying for fortifications, temple construction or something similar).

Its minimally described any where, just that they've accumulated wealth, and that they've remained nomadic. The Guide also states they tend to get a lot of gear, and their heavy cavalry are well armored tanks.  You may be right about fine rugs for their tents, etc.

[Brian Duguid]

16 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

That's true. Is there any mention of what kind of wealth they accumulated? Are the Pralori fully nomadic, or do they keep any kind of fixed settlements? Is it a case of them rigging out their tents with awesome rugs, silverware and chests full of luxury goods, or was there some further kind of investment going on? (ie. paying for fortifications, temple construction or something similar).

"Knowing Anahu’s friends, I’m pretty sure they spent most of the afternoon down by Silver Lake seeing who could skim coins the furthest. One day that lake is going to be so full of coins the water is going to slosh out of the sides and drown all the rabbits for us! But what else can we do with the coins? They are way too heavy to lug around when it's time to follow the Elk. So, I guess the Lake is as good a place as anywhere to put them."

"Grandma Hayeta does not get on with Bandabi. Not at all. She says that treasure is a curse. We spend more time finding safe places to hide it than actually using it, it weighs so much. She says it is useless to such-as-us, it is “filthy lucre”, like we might catch the Townsfolk Disease just by touching the unclean goods of travelers. Anything worth keeping that we can’t carry on our Path filled up the Lion Tomb a long time ago, and she says anything more is just going to bring the Wrath down upon us one day."

- from The Children of Hykim, "Hunting the Opossum"

The aim of these little comments in the story was not so much to offer an answer to what the Pralori do with accumulated wealth, as to highlight our lack of understanding of how the nomadic hunter and the mercenary aspects of Pralori society are compatible with each other. What do they want with the wealth? What do they do with it?

Edited August 29 by Brian Duguid

[Nevermet]

3 hours ago, Brian Duguid said:

The aim of these little comments in the story was not so much to offer an answer to what the Pralori do with accumulated wealth, as to highlight our lack of understanding of how the nomadic hunter and the mercenary aspects of Pralori society are compatible with each other. What do they want with the wealth? What do they do with it?

Those are good questions. And in general, the Pralori have more of a history of military prowess and politically controlling others than pretty much any other Hsunchen group (including the Basmoli), which just make them weird fascinating.  I almost want to compare them more to the Grazers with their relationship to the Vendref than to a lot of other Hsunchen.