I hope this doesn't count as a too serious necromancy, but i tought i'd drop the line:

I created a map of Near with GIMP, with the help of the good folks at the http://cartographersguild.com/. Check it out here:
http://yfrog.com/jvnearmapsnowj

It is my interpretation based on the texts in the TSOY wiki and the original map by Andrew Navarro. This might not be the final version but it is pretty near to it. Any suggestion how to improve it are welcome.

Roland

Split from the Near mappage discussion last year. No big deal.

That map is sweet! Maybe, if you're interested, you could continue fiddling with it and adding detail based on your own play? Your technique is enchanting, so I just want to see more Near cartography from you. More concretely, I seem to remember that the big lake in the center is called the Skyfall Lake or some such. Also, I'm not sure, but apparently when I wrote my own book I thought that "Poison River" is a nicer-sounding name than "Venom River" - no idea off-hand what if anything I used as the basis for the decision.

Also check out the World of Near if you're interested in other ideas about Near's cartography - there's quite a bit of material there on the matter.

I agree, very cool map :) When I run the World of Near one day, I'll be sure to use it!

Thanks for the positive feedback.

I would definiately add the details that would come up during our play. Unfortunately i am not so sure when i can convince my friends to play TSOY, if ever.

I  don't recall anything about the name of that lake, and google gives only some Glorantha related links for "Skyfall", but of course it is as good a name as any.

Anyway, in the meanwhile i found another tutorial for a different style of map, but somehow it is better for a bigger scale. So, in your opinions, what is the scale for Near? Does this map show a continent, or is it something like the size of France, for example? What do you guys think?

-roland

Oh, yes - there is in fact a "Skyfall Lake" in Dragon Pass; perhaps I'm getting mixed up, it's a very similar lake geographically.

The scale issue is interesting. I usually play with a functional scale, building my campaign-specific choices on whatever I need for the campaign's premise to work. This is for me almost always a pretty large scale: Maldor alone is the size of Greater Germany, there are tens of thousands of Zaru slaves scattered around, and so on. Roughly speaking, Near is similar in scale to Europe in my mind most of the time.

As another comparison that I've used, Maldor might be seen similar in size to the Qin empire or other early Chinese states. My brother Jari is enamored of a Middle-Eastern model as well, with Ammeni as Babylon, Zaru as Jews and so on.

Having the entire area be just a thousand kilometers wide would be interesting, too. It'd be less crowded, a certain sort of Story Guide could easier wrap his head around characters changing the world if the world was smaller.