HOME | DD
Will-Erwin β Post-Apocalyptic British Isles (Political Map)
#camelot #cartography #england #faerie #fairies #geography #ireland #ley #line #map #maps #nexus #rifts #roleplaying #roleplayinggame #rpg #sciencefiction #scifi #scotland #stonehenge #wales #splugorth #postapocalypse #postapocalyptic
Published: 2016-11-01 04:20:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 14548; Favourites: 152; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description
Gordon Bennett! I've gone and made Ole Blightey all doolally! You probably reckon I'm some right cheeky twat to come up with this damp squib of a map, but before you lose the plot, start bullocking me, and tell me to naff off, just read the inscription 'round the frame, you old bean, and Bob's your uncle.Β This isn't some cock up fit to be printed on a bog roll. I've just wangled the islands a bit to fit the story, see. It might seem a bit barmy at first, but when you take a good look, I'm hoping you'll bimble away chuffed.This map is based on the setting of the Rifts RPG from Palladium Books, specifically World Book 3: England. This is available as a print in this year's Christmas surprise packages . I've also posted a version showing just the bare geography .
I built the terrain from a manipulation of a real-world height map I found on Pinterest . I also re-created some common Celtic braid patterns that I found on a Google Images search. Special thanks to Arsheesh . I used variations on his tutorials to create many of the elements of this map, including the icons, curved labels, and frame.
Palladium Books owns the rights to the Rifts RPG and setting.
All right, then? What do you think? Smashing? Rubbish? Brilliant? Pants? No, no, of the map, not this writing, you giddy kipper!
Related content
Comments: 106
π: 0 β©: 1
π: 1 β©: 1
π: 1 β©: 0
π: 0 β©: 1
π: 0 β©: 0
π: 0 β©: 1
π: 0 β©: 0
Caw blimey! Stroof almighty... where me house gone!Β
Great job ... when all the ice melts on the poles, and the seas rise, Β this is what Britain will look like ...better buy a pare of Welly's then
π: 0 β©: 1
Thank you! Don't worry, I'm sure your house is there... somewhere... ah well, at least you still have Stonehenge!
π: 0 β©: 0
Pretty well overall, thanks! PhD research is consuming my life, but I'm enjoying it, and occasionally I still dabble in art. I hope to have a new map up in the next month or two. How are things with you?
π: 0 β©: 1
I am doing well. Although working night shift can mess up your social life.
π: 0 β©: 1
I hope it pays accordingly!
π: 0 β©: 1
This is highly relevant to my interests. O__O
π: 0 β©: 1
I hope you find it useful, then.
π: 0 β©: 1
Out of curiosity, what interests are you referring to? I'm curious, and I couldn't find much on your profile.
π: 0 β©: 1
My interests?
Maps, particularly post-apocalyptic and pre-civilization maps. This one is specifically relevant to me as I'm researching/collecting resources for a book set in Post-Roman Lothian and the surrounding Scottish lowlands. I've been digging around for quite a while and I haven't found a high-resolution geographic and political map of the British Islands from around 450 AD.
In addition, I used to play the hell out of Rifts back in the day, loved the Rifts England setting, and am currently running Shadowrun game that relies heavily on ley lines. So... yeah, this map is smack in the center of a Venn Diagram of several of my interests.
Also, not sure if you're part of the Cartographer's Guild, but I think that community would seriously dig your work.Β cartographersguild.com/
π: 0 β©: 1
I've picked up quite a few tricks on the Cartographers Guild, and I pop in there from time to time, I went through a phase when I competed on some of their monthly challenges a while back, which was a lot of fun.
It shouldn't be terribly difficult to come up with a decent map of Great Britain circa 450 AD. Here's a political map from that time:
www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/mβ¦
If you overlay that on top of a bare geography map of Britain, that should do the job for your political boundaries. Cities would require more research, but would be easy enough to place, since most of them are likely in the same place as their modern counterparts. The tricky part would be determining which ones existed and at what population level in 450, which would involve plenty of guesswork.
π: 0 β©: 1
Many thanks for the thoughts on this! I'm going to have to mashup a couple different maps, I think. What I'd love to find out is how much the land itself has changed since then. Obviously, Britain back then was a lot more forested, but I wonder if the rivers have moved at all since then, or if there's any sign that there was land that's since eroded into the sea. Probably too much nebbishy detail, but it still makes me wonder.
Out of curiosity, what sort of setup do you use for your map? I've tried using Cartographer's Guid's guides for a couple maps of fantasy worlds and much quicker than I thought, found myself beating my computer into submission with a massive 2GB photoshop file.
π: 0 β©: 1
My pleasure! Britain doesn't have a lot of geological activity, so I wouldn't expect a lot of large-scale changes. Areas of high erosion would need to be expanded (Dover comes to mind). Rivers would be a bit tricky on the small scale, but their general shape shouldn't change too much. Forests would be far wider and dominate the landscape.
You can always take the height map I provide the link to above and make your own map. The video tutorial at the top of my web page would work pretty well on it (just skip the despeckling, coast defining, and star removal steps). All you'd need to do would be manipulate the height map to your preferences, run it through the steps.
As for my setup I use GIMP 2.8 for most of my map-making, along with WILBUR for erosion effects and Inkscape for labels and icons. File sizes for GIMP can get pretty big, depending on the number/size/complexity of the image layers. 2GB sounds about right for the GIMP source file of a map like this one. On the hardware side, I use an SSD hard drive and a decent gaming laptop, which do the job well enough to make a file big enough to print on a movie poster (up to 9GB).
π: 0 β©: 0
You get full marks for the use of "Gordon Bennett!" which is my favorite British expletive...however, your post-apocalyptic map of great Britain needs to reference the Kingdom of Albion as described in Trinity Blood.
π: 0 β©: 1
Hey, thanks! It took an almost immoral amount of time for me to put together that introductory paragraph. I'm not familiar with Trinity Blood beyond the 1-minute Google search I just did, but I suppose a redux of this map might be able to portray Albion if I took away all the current political and magical features.
π: 0 β©: 1
Oh, please don't take away anything! 
there is enough room to show them together!Β For example, you could add miniature Wardrobes to show where the doorways to Narnia can be found!
π: 0 β©: 0
Haha I don't know much about what this is for, but this map is pretty cool! I'd be from Nortown Kingdom 
π: 0 β©: 1
Nortown is a kingdom of faerie folk, with sprites, pixies, night elves, et cetera. While some druid-type people live out there in a remote hamlet here and there, it's not a good spot for most people to live due to the mischief of the faeries (and the threat of their more sinister cousins who also live there).
Anyway, thanks for the kind words! I've been to Cornwall, Bath, and a few other places in southwest England and South Wales. It's a lovely region, and the people were quite welcoming. Regards from across the pond, and here, have a llama!
π: 0 β©: 0
Ye can barely see ma Orkney.Β
Oh I miss her dear.
Why does it say "tree of ages" on Orkney?
π: 0 β©: 1
This map is set in a science fiction future, and part of the science fiction is a couple dozen gigantic, magical "Millennium Trees" in some very special places. The one on Orkney is particularly large and special.
Alas, I've only spent a week in Scotland, and never visited Orkney, but I hear it's lovely.
π: 0 β©: 1
is the most bonniest.
but we Orcadians and Shets
consider our sels Nordic no Scot
π: 0 β©: 1
Fascinating. From a quick internet search, I've learned that Orkney has been part of Scotland since 1472, and it was essentially Norwegian from the 8th or 9th century until then, with local jarls owing allegiance to both countries from the 1100s until 1472. Do you identify more closely with the culture of Norway than with Scotland? If so, how?
π: 0 β©: 1
we are part of the nordic countries.
Orkney and shetland , our flags are nordic crosses
are language is different we are just part o Scotland
π: 0 β©: 0
Fantasy meets fact. I love your maps! Very few artists do this kind of stuff, especially at this level of detail. Very Meticulous. This map, and your others give me nostalgia from when I played Final Fantasy games 
π: 0 β©: 1
Thank you very much! I put a lot of time and attention into these, and I appreciate the feedback. I've never played any Final Fantasy games, but I've heard good things from friends ho have. I'm glad you associate my maps with that kind of product, and I always love hearing personal reactions to my art. Have a great day!
π: 0 β©: 0
Hey, what program do you use to make your maps?
π: 0 β©: 1
I use three programs. Most of the work is in GIMP. I do terrain erosion and rivers in WILBUR, and make labels and symbols in Inkscape. I have a video tutorial in the top right corner of my DA homepage that can walk you through much of the process, if you're interested.
π: 0 β©: 1
I have those but Im not sure what I m doing with them. It doesn't help that I have little time to use the because of school and work
π: 0 β©: 1
Well, my tutorial takes about 30ish minutes if you want to give it a try. It's a decent place to start.
π: 0 β©: 1
Ok cool, I'll try this weekend when I'm at work
π: 0 β©: 0
*Waves* here from Project-Comment I'm not familiar with the RPG but I love how you've put this together. You definitely put a lot of care in the details. The wood grain detailing and border give it a very nice finished look. I found myself spending quite a while following the ley lines and at all the different cities and towns. Really there's only a couple things that could improve it. The London of Splynn town marker is that scary mouth icon, but it isn't explained in the Legend (I assume it's something that makes sense in the context of the game). Also the text in the surround is very cool, though it was difficult to read. My family was asking what the heck I was doing since I had my head cocked all sideways trying to read it. 
π: 0 β©: 1
Hi there! Thanks for the constructive comment! I particularly appreciate the suggestions for improvement.
As a general rule, I don't put icons in that are only used once in a given map if those icons are labeled on the map. This map had a few such icons: Stonehenge, the Balfarg city icon (smaller, but similar to the hostile cities), and Myrrlin's Pyramid. Putting these single-use icons into the legend tends to be redundant and use up space; if I were to add it to the legend, it would be "Splugorth City" which wouldn't make much sense to a viewer unfamiliar with the setting. In the case of the London icon, it's meant to be a reference to my Atlantis map. Even without an explanation, your description of the icon evokes the scariness I was hoping for.
The point about the wraparound text is excellent, and I'd love to have a better alternative. I also like seeing these maps in print, where it's a bit easier to just rotate the map around, and it works pretty well in that manifestation. That said, more people see these maps online than in print, so I would like to have an alternative. That said, I love your description of your family's reaction, and I'm flattered that you cared enough to make the effort.
Thanks again for the great comment! Have a llama!
π: 0 β©: 0
So much to like here- the Splynn mouth, the ley lines, the entirety of the design.... wow!!Β Best work yet by far!
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks a lot, Zyanitevp!
π: 0 β©: 0
Hi there!
First of all, I just wanted to comment on this one and realized that I lack the knowledge, so I had to read plenty of stuff
First of all, I wanna talk about the general idea: As I understand there was some sort of cataclysm, so it would be very unlikely that the british isles would remain in their original shape. Now, I see that you'd be walking a fine line between realism and going beyond recognition with the terrain, but I think you could significantly alter the shape while maintaining what makes Great Britain recognizable. For example, you could make the Highlands drop into the ocean, making hundreds of isles of it. The outline would stay the same.
I like the fact that you put the faerie dominions into areas that are considered more rural and having a "magic" touch to them, like Ireland and Cornwall. But what are the lines connecting the cities? Are those the ley-lines you mentioned in the text or are these communication connections of some sort? (Love the way, you included the history on the edges of the map, btw. but I think you should not make it upside down on the southern edge, just so one can read it more easily)
Last but not least, the celtic imagery gives it a fantastic fantasy-flair, especially the wooden compass rose!Β
π: 0 β©: 1
Hello, and thank you for the constructive feedback!
On the subject of the shape of the islands, this was established in published books, and my intent for this map is to portray the published material as accurately as possible in a map that is also fun to look at. Your ideas are certainly valid, but in this case, since this map is for fans of the Rifts RPG, I'm trying to be faithful to what has come before.
The lines are indeed ley lines (perhaps I should have put that in the legend, too?), and the points where they meet are called nexuses. They are areas of elevated magic energy and are important for magic users and psychics. They are also places of occasional dimensional instability, bringing in various alien and supernatural creatures.
I've occasionally pondered orienting the text so it doesn't rotate around the map, but I haven't yet found a way to do it that looks right to me. In any case, I'm also hoping to sell some prints of this map, and it's easy enough to rotate a piece of paper around.
I had a lot of fun learning about Celtic knots and how to draw them for this map, and I was hoping that they would elicit precisely that theme. Thanks for sharing your reaction, and thanks again for a great comment! Have a llama.
π: 0 β©: 1
Oh, I see.
It was pretty hard to find some information on that game, so yeah...
π: 0 β©: 1
If you're interested in more details on the overall setting, there's a link to the RPG's main book page in the description, or you can simply google "Rifts RPG" and you should find plenty on it. It's an interesting IP.
π: 0 β©: 0
I saw this on , so here goes:
I haven't played (let alone heard of) the game this is based on, so I don't know if I can give you an informed opinion.
Still, the map looks pretty interesting: From a first glance, it looks as though someone stuck a constellation onto the United Kingdom. I do like the land texture, as well as the ocean colour scheme. Ultimately, I would probably need some understanding of the game and its objectives to give an informed opinion.
The map is high detailed, very colourful, and it looks to have the key elements that one would find in a general atlas, from the compass to the scale, to the legend, etc.
102 P.A? May I inquire what that means? And Gordon Bennet (SR I assume) lived between 1795 - 1872, yet this is called a "Post-Apocalyptic" map. Or was the quote a joke?
π: 0 β©: 1
| Next =>