After the boring bits its time to look at the interesting stuff, the terrain. For the first time, a look at final edits of Top Down and Isometric terrain samples a 16K tile, covering 15 x 15 miles.
The area is the south eastern corner of Furyondy very near to the western estuary of Veng River. It is almost entirely covered by the symbol for the town of Treen on the map below, but it shows you where we are located.
This post is not about finished maps, it is a first in depth look at the terrain. I've shown you lots of sneak peaks, screen shots and so on, but this is the first time I'm sharing full resolution final edit new generation terrains. I'm proud of these, it is the first of many to come and I will be able to improve a bit here and there I'm sure, but trust me these are good enough and I think you will agree with me! 🙂
Terrains for my future maps will come in Top-Down and Isometric versions, and the isometric ones will be available from 4 directions SE, SW, NE and NW. This will make every part of the terrain visible, and no hidden areas behind hills or buildings. I will also use the terrain files for other renders more of a "landscape photography" sort, more on that in future posts.
The area covered here is the south western corner of my first series of maps covering the Shield Lands so I'm using it to showcase what I'm working on. The western third of this area is not fully developed, I will get to that when I expand into Furyondy, but the center and eastern parts are full of interesting details normally not seen on fantasy maps that only covers small areas.
This sample is shown in isolation, this only for this sample. Both the top-down and isometric terrain tiles are being made so they match and will be seamlessly put together. Final maps will cover areas of interest instead of following technical limitations of my production workflow.
In my campaign this is part of the Earldom of Willip, and the Barony of Herechel. the town of Herechel is next to Critwall a bit further north and not of this map. The biggest settlement is the town of Treen, an agricultural hub with a bit of a twist. It is an inland port with a system of small rivers accessing a number of lakes. Treen is situated on what was once a lake, but then turned into a swamp that has dried a bit and now provides the most fertile lands in the barony. Transportation is done using small vessels on the rivers as well as an extensive network of small roads for foot traffic as well as horse and cart.
A small post on the Nyr Dyv to the south is there, and a mill by the waterfall on the way there. Halfway between Treen and the mill is a newly built bridge and a road west leading to the building site of a new fortress serving the order of Heironeous in the Kingdom. The hill where it is located is well chosen, it used to be home to an old fortress from the early days of Ferrond. Just north west of that hill is a bigger flat hill that used to house an old Flan hillfort and town that was ransacked and burned to the ground during the Aerdy conquest.
The ambitious Great Kingdom turned the low laying swamps into their new home and Treen was created in its stead. No one thought at the time that an hillfort was really needed, which was true for centuries. But with the Shield Land being almost completely run over, King Belvor ordered the defenses of this corner of the kingdom to be improved so the site of the old hillfort is being brought back to use again. A new shorter road to Treen is not yet in place but planned. The stone for the fortress comes primarily from the hill its being built on, digging down and cutting the stone and building the top keep makes transportation easy and provides both the keep and its dungeons in one go. The round hole is visible as well as buildings housing craftsmen and workers.
In the north you can follow the river west and find a series of quarries. some of them abandoned but the further west you go the more active they are. The western end of the big lake has the biggest double quarry with a road leading down from the upper part to the port where the stone is shipped across the lake and down river to wherever the stone is needed. Housing and area for draft animals are present as well. The area closest to the active quarries are devoid of trees, they have been used to build barges to transport the stone.
A lot of the forests in this area re managed by the Baron, the mayor of Treen and their sizable number of foresters. This can be seen as a patchwork of young and old forest and large areas used for grazing animals. The south eastern quarter of this area are different, and overgrown by native low bushy forests covering the coastal hills. This is an area with very poor soils unsuitable for agriculture and is instead the Earl of Willip's personal hunting grounds. To aid in this pursuit he built a castle on the highest hill, and a road From Treen down to the Veng in the east. This area is patrolled by his foresters, both to keep an eye on his deer but also to keep an eye on the northern reaches of his earldom.
There are number of small settlements, roads, and other details sprinkled about all over the place. This terrain covers one quarter of a 30-mile hex, Flanaess is big and there is room for a lot, even in this most dull corner of the setting.
Below you can find zipped maps to download. I zipped them up to force your browser to download rather than trying to open them. Download manager is recommended as always.
Download them and explore a tiny bit of the world of Greyhawk in detail, it is my take on it but I hope you like it
Top Down map (210.8MB)
https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/NG/Shield%20Lands%201%2064K%20-%20Herechel%20SAMPLE%20TERRAIN.zip
Isometric Maps
North East (90.2MB)
North West (89.7MB)
South East (90.8MB)
South West (90.5MB)
Next post will be about symbols and making the terrain into actual maps.
Thank you again for making this possible, and special welcome to my new patreon members!
