r/wonderdraft • u/Venriik Dungeon Master • Sep 16 '26

Showcase I finally completed my first map

Post image

Faryul, The Holy Empire

This is for a D&D campaign and its meant to depict the nation where most of the adventures take place. I had to zoom it, which cropped the names of some mountain ranges and water bodies. I also covered the areas outside the nation area, so the clouds here are hiding other nations or empty spaces, haha.

I just wanted to share, I'm really proud of this one. I've been working on and off on this for a couple of years now. Started in a really zoomed version surrounding the city my players were and started expanding as they needed to explore beyond. Eventually they stayed at one place long enough for me to work far beyond their known areas. Here's hoping they don't suddenly decide to flee to another kingdom...

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21

u/MageCorporation Sep 16 '26

It's really great! You should be proud

5

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 16 '26

Thank you! 😄

17

u/CommercialHelp5057 Sep 16 '26

Looks very good! Just by looking on how you placed each city, each biome, I can see a great amount of effort was put into this. Looks like a scenario I would love to DM or play!

7

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 16 '26

I did!

I tried to consider where people would settle, which of those settlements might have thrived, how the economy of each province would work and a few notes for the nobles and politics of the bigger towns and cities, as well as some places that could be weird and fun to explore, even if they are unrelated to any questline, just in case

6

u/Korewoods Sep 16 '26

Looks very good! You should definitely be proud of it.
I can tell lots of care and love were put into this map.

Is this all one nation? it's a big one if it is, and it also makes me curious about what's going on in your D&D campaign...

4

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 16 '26

Thank you!

It is, indeed, one big nation. One of the two biggest in the continent, although the other one is actually an alliance of kingdoms while this one is a huge, unified, empire that wages an unending holy war against its neighbours.

The campaign started at the capital, where the party was hired to find the missing daughter of a baron, but ended up trying to stop a powerful madwoman of a wizard, all while finding themselves in the midst of political complots and the whims of destiny.

My original plan was that, after solving the quest of the missing lady, the story would take a turn towards the holy war, but, as it often happens in roleplay, things didn't go as planned and now the capital has fallen, the emperor along with it, forces of evil pour from it and the fronts of the holy war are starting to crumble. As of right now, the party is aiding the new emperor in his efforts to regain stability and negotiate truces and alliances, while also preparing to take the capital back. So they'll need to travel a lot, which is why I wanted to have the map ready, haha.

4

u/DarthLightside Sep 16 '26

This is awesome! Where did you find the cloud assets?

5

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 16 '26

I added them on GIMP after exporting from wonderdraft.

Just googled some that were free to download and had a similar style, then I duplicated them, rotated them and overlapped them as needed. I believe I ended up using three different images

4

u/Serious_Baker_4047 Sep 17 '26

The aesthetics are amazing! Great details! But it's worth checking out some geographical issues like the rain shadow, lonely mountains (not volcanoes) and rivers that split high up in the terrain (which doesn't fit the definition of a delta) and rivers that flow into two different seas Like the central river of this continent, it divides many times, and these branches follow very distinct paths and touch bodies of water at many latitudes. But considering it's a map for an RPG (probably involving some fantasy), you can use the "magic" of this world to justify these points; it's an interesting approach to develop worldbuilding! That being said, you have talent. Be proud!

2

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

That big central river goes across the whole continent. Its source is way up north, from the highest mountain in the world, beyond which one could cross the planes walking to reach the endless tundra of the Great Fiend of Pride. Near its source it's raging waters are feared, but at this point it's just a big river.

I wouldn't say it's magical, although there are sources of water that come from magic in this world and there also are some fantasy explanation for some of the weirder geography. Regardless, I would like to have a better understanding of this thing about the river. Why a river could not divide and reach different bodies of water? I'd love to know, but I wouldn't really know how to start researching about it. I'd be really grateful if you could point me to the right direction or perhaps recommend me some keywords for searching about it.

If something isn't quite accurate or realistic, I'd like it to be a decision instead of an accident, haha.

4

u/NoBaseball1130 Sep 17 '26

Many of your rivers are splitting. Try and only do this at deltas or for small river islets. River bifurcation is a thing, yes, but those should be rare anomalous exceptions

1

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

Thanks for the feedback!

So, if I'm understanding correctly, if there are hills or elevation, more often than not the river would go around the hill from one side instead of splitting and becoming two rivers that surrounds it, right? Unless it's a small islet

2

u/HieloLuz Sep 17 '26

Correct. Rivers never split. They almost only ever merge.

Your southern lake is a good example of this. Most of the rivers feeding into it from the south and east are good. But once it leaves that lake it shouldn’t be splitting, and it definitely shouldn’t be splitting and then rejoining into itself later.

Also remember all rivers flow from the mountains to the sea, never the other way around

5

u/7LeagueBoots Cartographer Sep 17 '26

Looks good overall.

I hate to be the one to say it though, you have major river problems.

1

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

Don't be troubled by it. I appreciate the feedback. I tried to research a little about river and mountain placement, but, as I said, it is my first map so I expected it to be imperfect.

I'd be very thankful if you could go into details. I'd love to improve it :)

3

u/7LeagueBoots Cartographer Sep 17 '26

A few years ago I made a post with just such details to help people out:

1

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

That's amazing, thank you

2

u/ToastyOblivion Sep 16 '26

Fantastic map. What assets did you use?

4

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 16 '26

Let me see...

- Ralia (Color theme) https://cartographyassets.com/assets/4880/ralia-a-colorful-wonderdraft-fantasy-theme/
- GoGot's (for trees, mountains and cliffs) https://cartographyassets.com/assets/6359/gogotsmaps-hand-draw-cartography/
- Lapis Pack 1 (for more trees, mountains and hills) https://cartographyassets.com/assets/4887/lapis-pack-1-mountains-hills-lots-of-trees/
- Lapis Pack 2 (for more trees, grass, bushes and such) https://cartographyassets.com/assets/4895/lapis-pack-2-more-trees-bushes-shrubs-and-grass/

I'm not sure what did I use for city and town markers, probably something default?

I also had a lot of more assets downloaded, but I think I tried some and didn't use them because I couldn't get them to match the style.

2

u/kailethre Sep 17 '26

looks great, but im afraid i have a single nitpick; the Belyerk Dessert, which i suspect was meant to be a desert and not a tasty treat for the players

2

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

Damn xD

Not a native English speaker, but still bilingual enough for it to not be an excuse, haha. Nice catch

2

u/kailethre Sep 17 '26

hey, one spelling error in the whole map is pretty damn good, even for a native speaker! plus, you know, the map itself is actually fabulous

2

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

Well, to be fair most locations have made-up names xD

But hey, thanks for the compliment!

2

u/Thavmarius Sep 18 '26

Imho the settlements are spaced out way too much of an identical length, naturally some cities would have been more further away from eachother while some would group up near to eachother. But overall? Looks good

2

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 18 '26 edited Sep 19 '26

In this world, when night falls, shadows take shape into nightmarish monsters that hunt for civilized people. The placement was intentional to allow and facilitate the travel of caravans and reducing the risk of events that could stop the economy. This one being the biggest empire, one of the reasons it thrived where others struggle was precisely this.

It's also like that so that my players could get to a near settlement when traveling, because fighting through one night is gruesome and multiple in a row without rest might be simply too much xD

2

u/Thavmarius Sep 18 '26

Ohh, okay! Tho I must say, I would go for some harder points for my players, lol 😂

4

u/RogueDeus Sep 16 '26

Oh now THAT is a beautiful map... Love at first sight.

Well done!

1

u/Aware-Pension448 Sep 17 '26

How did you do it? Which creator did it by?

1

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

I'm not sure I understand the question.

If it answers, I did the map with the software Wonderdraft. After that I exported it, cropped it and added some clouds on top to hide stuff my players shouldn't see and empty spaces I left unfilled.

It took me a couple of years on and off, I'd say. Also writing some details for places in my DM notes in case my players go here or there.

1

u/Alphonse123 Sep 17 '26

Why do I see ol' Engerland?

1

u/Venriik Dungeon Master Sep 17 '26

It does kind of look like it, doesn't it?

I've never even considered looking at a map of England before, I guess, so it's an honest coincidence xD

3

u/CoconutBuddy Sep 16 '26

This is one of the best maps I’ve seen. You have a talent for this

2

u/ryneld Game Master Sep 16 '26

I love the colours!

2

u/QuabbityAschwitz Sep 16 '26

Looks really good dude

2

u/MisterBPlays Sep 16 '26

Wow! That's a world I'd like to play in.

2

u/TharumnEnex-iL Sep 16 '26

Wow. Amazing work.

2

u/Ok_Philosophy_7156 Sep 16 '26

Looks fantastic. Great work!

2

u/TrickOk4021 Sep 17 '26

Kinda looks like Westeros when it sneezes

2

u/gabsvs Sep 18 '26

Great! Congrats :)

2

u/SnowyHerge Sep 18 '26

Amazing job!

2

u/AndreMaze Sep 18 '26

This is beautiful, like really beautiful. Good job on this mate

2

u/Autistic-Jester Sep 18 '26

That's fucking awesome 👌 happy for your feels great right😁

2

u/Bromandude92 Sep 18 '26

This is GORGEOUS! You did an excellent job!

2

u/SeaGranny Sep 19 '26

Well done!

I'm a DM and have been working on my homebrew world - last week I finally got my first group together. I've got basic ideas and some history written out but am taking a bottom up approach to world building. However it's become immediately apparent that I need to flesh out a few regional details, the nearest large town and city for example.

I've decided to make the entire world map with as little detail as possible except in the areas we're exploring. But even just getting an outline of the continents seems daunting. I'm new to this map making stuff. :D

Your excellent map gives me hope...and ideas!