I just realized that I never really said anywhere on this site that I’d drawn a map of the MU world as covered by the lecture in Chapter 14. Of course, if you follow me on Twitter or my blog you’ll probably know why I’m not exactly bragging:
Some interpretive aid can be found in the blog post where I initially posted the map… now that I have the MU blog set up here I’ll be sure to post information this MU-centric here in the first place.
For those of you who are wondering why I don’t make a better map… that is literally the best that I can do. If I took twice as long, it would look twice as crappy because my hand would get that much more tired and would shake worse. I could conceivably improve it by spacing it out over the course of several days, but that’s a lot of time and effort for amateur cartography, don’t you think? I’d rather spend the time writing. I suppose I could have used a text tool for the words, but I figured hand-lettering would better fit the overall aesthetic feel of the piece.
The point of this map is to simply give a general idea of the shape of one corner of the world and the location of some key places inside it. Map-making is not something I’m naturally inclined towards… my physical disabilities aside, I’m not a strong spatial thinker. Not only do I not have any problem blithely reading about (or writing about) fantasy lands with no idea where they lay in relation to each other, I find it easier to do so.
I made this bit of map despite my reservations on the subject due to high reader demand coupled with the fact that that the chapter it goes with being the product of reader demand in the first place.
And while I’m perfectly happy to put the experience behind me and never darken Paint’s doorway (with a spraycan tool, presumably) again, I’m willing to expand this map as an incentive for those who value geographical information.
See, I produced an e-book recently, called The Gift of the Bad Guy. Some of you have already read it. It just came out for Kindle this past weekend, and I’d like to give its sales there a little jolt.
For every 10 sales of The Gift of the Bad Guy Kindle edition… up to the first 70… I will expand the map by one time its original size. So the “finished” expanded map will cover eight times the area, extending north to show Tylea, south to show the Argentus, more of the Ardan, and the location of Malbus and some other assorted places, and east to show the western part of Khazarus and the edge of the Shift proper, plus some other stuff to the west.
(If anyone’s curious, the finished map would be four times the height and double the width of the original.)
Note: It’s not going to be any higher quality or more detailed… I’m working with physical limitations here. But it’ll give the relative locations and approximate shapes of things, which more graphically capable people could use as a starting point and readers who have a difficulty reading about distant lands without a visual aid showing where they are in relation to each other can have that aid.
German Kindle Store. (Note: Book is in English.)
Note: Kindle format e-books do not require a $100+ piece of specialty hardware to run. You can read them on your desktop or on many major smartphones using free software. While I get the same money even if people buy it just to see more of my map scrawlings, my actual goal here is to get more copies of the book into the e-hands of more people who want to read it, faster.
This offer expires in a week. When I wake up on Tuesday I’ll check the sales and then start drawing the appropriate number of map segments. After that I won’t have time to draw the map before WisCon, and after WisCon I won’t be at my desktop computer for a while.
And just to sweeten the pot: my housemate has offered to take my scribblings and help me turn them into something presentable. I’ll still be posting my original “whiteboard” version so you’re not left waiting for her schedule to allow for that.
Yay, a map! In which general direction would MU be?
Far to the west, across an ocean and then halfway across a continent.
As the mother Isles sit in the ocean (I assume) all the solid lines should be coastline, right. If so, the hand drawn look works best as coastline should have a more ragged natural look anyway. When I do a world map for a campaign or anything I always free draw the lines because I can’t freehand a straight line to save my life.
Edit: A gaming mapping too (there’s a few free ones out there that are relatively easy to use) is great for doing fictional world maps if your bad at drawing them.
Is that an offer to use your Powers for Good?
Because I for one would like to see an effort at drawing “a good map of the World.”
You know AE, if you wanted, I do graphic design as a hobby, and could probably cobble something pretty looking together for you if you’d be interested.
I was just about to suggest that a member of AE’s readership might have the requisite talents to put together a nice map of the MU world, but it seems that Fiona has beaten me to the punch. Given that Tales of MU’s readership is one of the most literate, intelligent and good-looking on the internet (not at all a self-serving statement *waves hand for Jedi mind trick*), I’m sure that there are several people out there who would be willing to draw something up. Sadly, I am not a visual artist (my talent lies in the realm of music), so the best I could do would probably be somewhat like AE’s efforts.
If only there were a Slartibartfast around. I’m given to understand he’s very good at doing the crinkly bits around Fjords.
Is that tough to do?
…sorry, I prefer Punting yaks to Fjords. ;รพ
I had personally always just assumed that the Tales of MU world WAS Earth, just with magical “physics” instead of the scientific ones. I mean, obviously there’s still strong parallels, but I’d just assumed that a physical map was a 1:1 translation with the political map being more or less the same. Did anyone else get this impression?
I actually had the exact opposite. I pictured the MUniverse as a completely different and new world from the start, and even with all the parallels that have been drawn with our world, I still just saw them as more… societal parallels, not indicative of geography or anything. Even now I don’t really picture the world geographically. Where is Paradise Valley? Far away from the university. Where are the Mother Isles? …Also far away from the university XD
When I first began reading Tales of MU, I did begin assuming that the two worlds were geophysically similar. But several time Alexandra has made it clear that was NOT her concept. Hey, I say the Creator Deity gets to do it any damn way SHE pleases!
After I was at least half way through my first pass, my visualization of the MU world was reasonably in synch to the above map. Except for the placement of Merovia. I thought it was the same continent as Magisteria IR. That Merovia was either the western coast {Califoregon} or the southern coast {Mextexloubama}.
Since Alexandra locates the Merovian homeland south of the Old Empire. They must have colonized the Western continent before the Old Empire deigned to graciously extend their awesomeness across the Great Ocean. Similar to the Hispanic conquests on our world.
And as similarly be overrun by aggressive Anglo-American expansion.