The Map
That title sounds infinitely more ominous than this post actually will be…
Anywho, it’s finally here! At long last, after over 30 hours of dedicated work, the map of the world from my book is finally, FINALLY done and ready to be seen! Like I’ve said many times before, I never expected to be able to do something like this. This map reflects the progress that I’ve made over the past month or two with digital art, and I can clearly see a trend in the right direction with me figuring out new styles and ways of bringing art to life, and even if this map is relatively simple, some of the tricks I learned will be massive for the next projects that I have locked in the chamber! With all that being said, let’s focus solely on the map!
Kryshendar
Kryshendar is the name of the planet Sapphiria hails from in my story. Since her people are called the Krysheek, it made sense for their planet to bear a similar structure to their name, hence how I landed on Kryshendar. In terms of age, this world has been drawn out in a journal for at LEAST 8 years now. I’m not making that up. Extremely early on in the book writing process, I quickly locked in a sketch of what I saw the planet like in my head. Since then, that sketch has largely been buried, but it has remained the foundation throughout ALL the world building I’ve done over the years and served as the foundation for this map as well! All of the details from the sweeping sands of the Karasi and the shining ice of the Frozen Scar was set in stone all that time ago, and it was absolutely euphoric to bring it to life in a way that’s pretty dang close to what I see in my head. Of course, I didn’t just want to focus on the landmasses. During the process, I put in some fluff details, such as the sea creatures, as well as important landmarks that will be focused on within the story! To get this kicked off, let’s break this world down and explore Sapphiria’s home in detail!
The Aqua Farms
The very place where this entire story started, the very first area I knew that I wanted to place emphasis on was none other than the Aqua Farms! These farms served as Sapphiria’s home away from home throughout most of her life. Instead of Krysheek, these farms were run by automatons that didn’t care what she looked like, and it was one of these automatons, Trigon, that ended up caring for her like the parent she never really had. These farms had a massive impact on her life and helped shape her future as an automatonist, and the first book heavily circles around this area in particular. While these farms were the focus of the map, there were some other locations that would have overlapped them that I had to leave off. Namely, Sapphiria’s real home was just a few minutes away, her Sanctum was exceptionally close, and the scrapyards of Anshal were just to the north. All in all, there are a LOT of features packed into such a very small space, and while they didn’t get the chance to show up here, there’s a good chance they will show up in the future!
The Center
Occupying the heart of the largest continent is largely the heart of Krysheek society. Orden serves as the majestic capital city for their people, and the palace of the emperor, Dagan, shows up as front and center as its representation on the map. While this palace does bear resemblance to traditional Indian architecture, it’s worth noting that it’s the only building in all of Orden like it! The only buildings close to it in appearance actually lie in a different city not too far away, Mercanta! Mercanta is sometimes referred to as ‘The Bazaar’, and serves as the primary trade hub for much of the continent. All of the major trade guilds have headquarters in the city, and it is absolutely jam packed with shops! During the story, Sapphiria finds her way here and has a rather fateful encounter with a certain bubbly Archon, but it wasn’t the Archon that actually lived nearby. Serving as the Archon of Orden and most of the continent, Kaden’s palace is rather close to Orden; just about an hour away in fact. His palace is the oldest out of them all and was actually the palace of the First Archon over 1000 years ago, and is quite recognizable thanks to its three towers. Finally, the last major location worth mentioning is the Broken Spine, a massive monument destroyed by negligence that has remained strangely seismic in activity even after all of these years of abandonment. I wonder what could be going on there…
The Archipelago Region
Occupying the Southwest corner of the map, most of the largest continent turns into one giant archipelago. There are hundreds of islands divided by shallow water in this area, and it’s home to quite a number of cities and small villages. Obviously, nautical practices are quite common here, and the rather low terrain means much of the area is prone to flooding. On the mainland, things aren’t too different. Many lakes dominate the terrain, effectively making it more like a marsh, and they support a number of large, beautiful cities known for their art and calm atmospheres. While this area doesn’t get touched upon in these first few books, it is an absolute gem that just can’t help but stand out to certain individuals, particularly those who recently retired.
Ostaren
Dominating the Northwest corner of the map is the landmark of Ostaren’s palace. Like Kaden, Ostaren serves as one of the five Archons, and makes himself at home amidst the grassy highlands. This terrain is dominated by tall, rocky steppes littered with grass and shrubby forests. While there are numerous villages in the area, most of the region is devoted to husbandry and herding mountain animals like Preet. Due to the mountains and the relative difficulty traveling to the area, the region stays fairly quiet and peaceful, something none of its residents have an issue with.
Strange North
For the eagle eyed observers, clearly the north of the map has some funky things going on. A desert up against volcanos with a frozen landmass just above it? As weird as it sounds, this is the natural terrain of the northern part of the main continent. The Kerasi is the largest desert on their planet by a mile, and has forced the Krysheek people to adapt to its arid landscape. Rainfall in the region is abysmally rare, and most of the terrain is dominated by sand dunes. Only the occasional rocky mountain and deep canyon can be found here, but it’s actually on one of these tall mountains that the city of Nerkossa was able to find purchase. Much of the desert is popular as a trade route, and thus is incredibly important to the Krysheek economy and the trade guilds, not to mention some of the defensive benefits it provided during the Clockwork Crisis.
Just north of the desert, however, is a much less friendly region. Normally referred to as the ‘Volcanic Range’, this area is dominated by vicious volcanoes, magma fields, and some of the most terrifying monsters to ever live. This region is the very definition of a hellscape, and few ever find there way here for any reason. Just to its north, however, is a rather odd region, the Frozen Scar. Despite being butted up against Volcanoes, the Frozen scar has no trouble with existing, and is just as inhospitable as the volcanic range. Expeditions to this frozen region are incredibly few and far between, and there is almost no information regarding the namesake of the region, the massive frozen scar torn through its center. To this day, no one has any idea what could be contained within it, but, at one point in history, it was very interesting to the leadership of the Clockwork Armada…
The Northeastern Swamp
Tucked away in the northeast is a vast and murky swamp. Much of the land in this region is sunken, and navigating it can be borderline impossible, hence why so many caravans opt to go through the Karasi. Despite the terrain, this once served as the home of an ancient empire that fell during the Crisis, and it very well might be the one thing that saved the planet itself. When the Clockwork Armada attempted to march through the swamp, they sank, forcing them to make the long, difficult trek through the Karasi. Who would have expected a swamp to be the hero of any story?
The Southern Isles
One of the most beautiful places in the world, and the place that Sapphiria loves above all else, the Southern Isles are a tropical paradise. Composed of numerous, tiny islands, some of the world’s most exotic species can be found in the area, and its an absolute treasure trove of natural beauty. There are many, many villages littered across the small islands, and one of the five Archons, Thrissa, calls it home. From here, she monitors all of the oceanic activity across the entirety of the world and even oversees a shipyard within her very palace! Another location of note is the port city of Nuvar, one of the largest ports on the continent. Nuvar supports a massive shipping industry and typically enjoys almost the entirety of the traffic that flows towards Mercanta and the capital city! Though, if you find yourself in the area, keep your eyes peeled for hungry Murktreaders…
The Volcanic Island
Sitting at the very tip of the Eastern Continent, the volcanic island is exactly what it sounds like. It’s entirely dominated by active volcanoes, and continues to grow in size year after year from all the lava flow. Most of the island is littered by magma fields, but villages have found a way to survive in the hostile region. Additionally, the fourth of the five Archons resides here in his fortress. While Gaoren probably comes across as villain material in such an aggressive lair, he’s arguably the most honorable and loyal of the five Archons. While the island itself is definitely not vacation material, travelers in the area might still be able to catch a site of a tremir, the large ocean herd animals that migrate from north to south on a regular basis!
Fallador
Instead of having multiple sections for this, let’s just knock out the Eastern continent all at once! Fallador is completely and utterly dominated by the most rugged and indomitable mountain range on the whole planet. These mountains are extremely cold nearly year round, and frequently get drowned in blizzard. The terrain is sparse, vegetation is limited, and, overall, it’s not an area anyone would want to settle down in, but there is an oasis at its heart! At the center of the mountain range is a verdant valley dominated by the largest trees in the world! These trees grow nearly as tall as the mountains themselves, and are so big that an entire village is actually built onto them! The First Archon herself called this village home, and all these many, many years later, it’s still one of the most beautiful places in the world!
Not to be outdone though, the last of the five Archons calls this continent home. Surrounding the mountains on all sides are large fields and steppes of nothing but golden grass, not too different from wheat. On these slopes, the palace of the last Archon, Gale, calls itself home. Her palace is situated in one of the largest villages in the region, and it’s an exceptionally quant place where the architecture is cozier and more rugged in appearance than what one would find in the more artistic Orden. While the area is quite peaceful and serene, it is a little technologically deficient. Most of the villagers in Gale’s village are ignorant to technology, and getting engineers to come all the way out to such a remote area devoid of raw materials is borderline impossible, but given Gale’s friendship with Sapphiria, there’s a good chance engineering will find its way there quite soon. After all, Gale is practically dying to have Sapphiria visit at some point!
That’s a Wrap!
There you have it! After three weeks of posting about it nearly nonstop, the map of Kryshendar is finally available! It’s exciting to have it on display, and it was thrilling to get the chance to actually break so much of it down and explain how this world is structured! Although it was a lot of effort, I am tremendously happy with how it turned out, and it will serve as the foundation for future development and iteration here on this site! While I could go into details about the process for building this… I think I’ll spare everyone the details for now! After all, my fingers are kinda hurting now… Alongside this, the interactive map will also be going live on the site, so be sure to check that out if you want to get a better look at any one area! For this week, I don’t think anything else is needed. I’ll have more to discuss next week, especially now that I can work on new things, so, until then… CHEERS!
The Flying Fennec