Cartograffy

[kingtycoon]

Well, that's a first pass on the Western Coast. Much can be said about all of this, in fact it will be.

I think, optimally, wishes being granted by a magic ring style ambitions? I'd like to finish this up in watercolors so that it's 5'x12' and then get some nice photos of the pieces, get them color-corrected and edited lightly digitally. Then join them up together into a big scaleable image file and then put that on the internet and make it interactive so that you click on a spot on the map and it gives you the option to read something about that place by choosing an author and a time.

I guess I should explain that when I write the history of my imaginary country I make up primary and secondary sources and that I kind of really do write it as a history - rather than as a novel. There's a lot of forged documents that count as authentic testaments of previous times. It's a whole thing. Can I tell you why I'd want to do this? I cannot.

Anyhow- the top of the coast is where you'll find Pinepath - the first of the Kannylte to join the Empire after the conquest of the Weft Valley. Pinepath is prinicpaly the home of the Zun people who joined up nice and easy because their existing civilization was governed by a handful of Mad Alchemists who were easy enough for the Empire to roll over, particularly with the groundswell of support by the common folk, who were pretty much done with being ruled by Mad Alchemists. Naturally there's an undercurrent there of Sane Alchemy now, which will is based on my modified hermeticism that uses 6 elements each with 2 'genders' or 'poles' that will end up being a mashup of the Tao and the Kybalion. Probably. They're called Pinepath in reference to the Mad Alchemists being crucified along the roads - but also, because of the roads themselves being made of wooden-boards and rope bridges, largely.

Next down is Copperring which has a similar backstory - here, you see the concentric rings of river and hill and mountain and river (sorta - it's something that doesn't really come out in a map, but the experience of the people living there is all about this concentric orientation). There's copper in the hills and in the river - so that's partly the source of the name. Also, this area was the head of a proto-imperial system, where the Url-King who'd fashioned the Copper-Ring, a kind of lightning-rod/static-sulfur-ball contraption lived. He used his technical knowledge, including the understanding of metal-smithing to draw people into his authority and governed his own region for 300 years(!) but also became a patron and defender of the people further south. Those people had been terrorized by the Eno (a tribe of religious zealot/assassin/nihilist/satanists) who lived on and worshiped the big mountain in the middle of the plain. The smaller kingdoms that the Eno preyed upon turned first to the Url-King for help and defense. He in turn disseminated his technical ability and knowledge throughout the region (but in a methodical, experimental way, so that some of the kingdoms were given some knowledge and denied other knowledge). This was effective at stemming the tide of the Eno's predations, but was not sufficient to turn them back entirely. The Url-King in turn pledges himself and all of his clients to the Empire so long as the Empire agrees to conquer the Eno. Being somewhat benign, the Empire drives the Eno of off the One Mountain and into a permanent diaspora. This ends a period of human history in which knowledge and wisdom might have prevailed against danger and heralds the age of Steel, in which military dominance and force become the final argument. Below Copperring are a couple of Kannylte that lie on what is called the Ruined Coast- in that it is full of ruins, not that it is ruined itself. Here you can still find the weird remnants of the Url-King's client states, a mish-mash of peculiar, individualistic city-states. I'm working on names for these places right now because the ones I had, I just don't like.

Stealing from Sargon the Great who conquered everything to the Persian Gulf and erected a monument saying: "I have washed my weapons in the sea." I have considered Tidescour or Oceanflight - but also things like Seaflight and Wavemask. None of them is really doing it for me so far. I'd probably really like Tidescour if it didn't sound too much like some kind of cleaning solution. The idea is that places are named for part of their conquest - so they should have some reference to people being driven to the sea, and some reference of the Empire rescuing them by marching to the sea. The Sea.

South of that, at the end, you can see the mountainous fingers rising out of the ocean - this is Whitesail which is sort of like Novaya Zemlya - at the southern tips these peninsulas are conjoined and linked on a seasonal basis, but the very, extremely, super-duper old old mountain range (appalachian style but with glaciers and fjords) help create these warm lowlands and super-rich fisheries. These areas are the traditional home of the Hlorii people - who express a lot more sexual dimorphism than you're used to. The dudes are 3 meters tall and sometimes have fangs, and the ladies are like, regular sized lady Fado singers. These people have a lot of weird duality in their cultural attitudes that are based on the land and the sea, the man & the woman, the highland and the lowland and so on. Their deal is a devotion to old-time religion that's dualistic and theological (rather than mystical). They gave up on resisting the Empire after a famous event in which one of their Hetmen's harem was captured and ransomed back to him in exchange for his complicity in helping the Empire.

Comments

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

This also serves as my livejournal post documenting when I had to abandon flickr.

[archivist405.livejournal.com]

does your paper come out of a notebook? one of those big watercolor ones? after you label each page with it's grid number you should stick them inside the notebook and clip the edges shut so they will flatten out, or get some boards you can squish them between, just don't use cardboard.
I'm clearly very concerned about the curly edges of these pages. If you need any flattening techniques I'm your gal

all that other stuff is really cool too.

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

To the first question - Yes, I'm getting away from using those generally, but I had them around so I thought this would be a cool use.

Right now I just have them squashed under a bunch of books and when they get flatter I figured I'd glue them down to some cardboard. You don't think that's wise?

[archivist405.livejournal.com]

It depends on how you want to digitize them I guess. I'd be wary of glue and cardboard.
Do you want to actually attach them together or just piece together the scans?
Just be mindful of the glue you choose because watercolor paper will absorb any water based adhesive and it will buckle. Also the acidity in the glue and the cardboard will effect the color and lifespan of the pages. I'm fussy about this stuff, it's maybe not that important for your purposes.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just scan each sheet then digitally piece them together, I say.

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

So my plan of hanging them up in my house to cover the walls and then notate them obsessively like a lunatic??? That's not the right thing to do? You're saying?

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

Oh no, that is a good plan too, I just meant to piece them together in a way that outputs online.

[archivist405.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would use the boards from the notebook to sandwich the pages, then put the books on top as weights. The boards will evenly distribute the weight and get the edges better. It's probably so dry due to winter weather that this will take a long time. They need a tiny bit of moisture to really reshape.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

If Wavemask then...masks? That is, Pinepath's paths are the best, maybe a cultural reflection could add the depth you are missing on that kyu?

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

I got Wavemask from them, maybe, hiding in the ocean, or in portions of the ocean from invasions. Seahide is okay for that too, what with the double meaning, but I think about these and how they're the titles of books as well.

Some of these have grown over time, with me. So now, I see Pinepath and I think: Reticence and sober contemplation of radical realities, calm in the face of oblivion, recklessness as a known compulsion, suppressed by dignity.

I don't have anything out of these other names, they don't mean anything to me yet, but the names I had tacked on already didn't mean anything either.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

Right, I guess my "top down" style is to look for a hook. "Mask" would suggest...boats with faces (Aegean-y?) & ritual masks & ice goggles &...