It’s Time for a New Map

Fantasy maps are something I really enjoy drawing – I’m not gonna lie. There’s something really fun about building a world and just letting it grow in front of you. Some of it comes from a vision, a desire to make something you know exists in your head already, and a lot of it just grows as you let the pencil wander.

I really debated adding this map, or any like it, because the Desert Mountains (in Steps of Krakador) are very mysterious to the characters themselves. I thought about drawing the various misinformed maps that they have in the story, but that seemed like a ridiculous amount of maps to add just to give you the sense that no one knows where anything actually is. So instead I thought I’d make a map of better-known territory, the estate of a new character: Bramblethorn. Of course I throw in some useful information pertaining to the story, as this is to serve predominantly as a point of reference (we never visit Bramblethorn’s humble home, sadly).

I was pushed to add it by a particular fan who loves maps, and who was sad that a new one hadn’t been included. Of course I hope that this scratches his itch – I want to provide something of real value to you guys, because that’s important to me above so many things.

I did decide to do it in a different fashion – everything is done by hand, there’s no computer-generated text of any kind. I kept in line with the blue of the water in previous maps, but aside from that the rest is hand-drawn. I did this because I felt like I was making more of a localized, almost fantastical map for the world itself. The Desert Mountains aren’t well explored, as you’ll read in the book, and I wanted to keep them off to the side and somewhat poorly revealed (covered by a giant floating banner in this case).

 

If you enjoy maps, I hope this suits you well. And did you catch all of those links in the text above? Whatever could they be linking to…