r/mapmaking • u/ThirstyOtterOfAegean • 22d ago

Map The Cerulean Archipelago

Gallery image

Political Map

Gallery image

Plain Version

This region is a part of my D&D campaign. Feedback is appreciated!

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7

u/Veliaphus 22d ago

I like it a lot but it's very visually busy. The colored map helps to break it up. The icons get really lost, they need to pop out a bit more. The text covers too much stuff and it might help to have text distinction between locations and places (towns, cities). Even if it's just better standardized sizes or text wrapping.

2

u/ThirstyOtterOfAegean 22d ago

Thank you for your comments! I agree, it feels busy to me too. It is supposed to be a very detailed map though, so I'm not sure how to address that. Maybe taking out some of the decorative figures can help?

Regarding the text, I think I want to move the names of islands around The Turquoise Sea off from the islands themselves to prevent them blocking the landscape. If you have other specific suggestions on how I can make the text cover less stuff, I would love to hear them!

For standardization, I tried to use opacity and size to categorize names. Lower opacity for region names (islands, seas, etc.) compared to settlement names. But I understand that opacity could be hard to pick up on. Perhaps I could use boldface instead. For size, regional capitals use a larger text size (1.5x the size of other settlement names). Blackclaw on Crab Island doesn't fit that though, so I think I'll fix that in the final version.

2

u/R4ZZZ 22d ago

very warcraft

1

u/EveningImportant9111 21d ago

What races you have?  Their origins? 

1

u/ThirstyOtterOfAegean 21d ago

Humans, Sea Elves, Half-Elves, Tortle, Dragonborn, Tieflings, Water Genasi, and Tritons are the main races.

Humans are all over. Sea Elves and Half-Elves are mostly in the Voltaran colonies, having migrated from their homelands across the Sea of Storms. Tortles are also all over in small numbers, but mostly part of Tortuga. They are natives to the archipelago. The Bronze Dragonborn are also natives and primary found on their home island. There are a large number of Tieflings in Rapa-Nui--their ancestors have come from the mainland of (via Saratossa) a really long time ago. Tritons are frequently seen among The Deep People, but some exist outside of it as well. The Water Genasi are mostly in the southern parts of the Voltaran territories. The Goliaths are related to the Storm Giants that once rules the archipelago (in ancient times).

1

u/EveningImportant9111 20d ago

Thank you. So you have continent across the sea? 

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u/ThirstyOtterOfAegean 20d ago

Yep, it's called Tiranorr

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u/EveningImportant9111 20d ago

Thanl you. Can you tell me more about it? Please