Map quest

One of the favourite parts of the revision process has been working with friends of mine who have expertise in various fields to identify possible holes and, even better, enhance the story.

Most recently I sat down with my mate Pat, a cartographer, of Stirling Surveys, to formally plot the world of Arbea. Firstly I showed Pat the sketches of the map that I’d done at the outset. We discussed how far apart things were in terms of distance (for example it takes Gemmy approx 20 minutes to walk from his house to endo training).

I learned that I have zero concept of scale! My original map meant that either the people of Arbea are giants or the entire continent was roughly the size of Texas. So we went about rationalising the distances and scale of things which was thrilling.

We also discussed topography and things like where mountains and lakes would naturally form. He pointed out that, given the location of the (inactive) volcano in the middle of Bansho Island City (an island within an island), it would most likely not be a peninsula. And, since it’s called Bansho ISLAND City, why not make the darned thing an actual island connected to the main land by a causeway? This also provides a convenient explanation for why the likes of Gravander (Gemmy’s dad) and Raephite (Sem’s dad) don’t come home regularly. The city itself isn’t really big enough to have an air strip and the distance from the coast on the mainland to Morgengarde is roughly the distance of Edinburgh to London (circa 400 miles).

So, I’ve left Arbea in the careful hands of Pat. It’s great collaborating with him to make Arbea really real. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

I’ve done a sketch of what Bansho will look like now it’s had a topographic makeover (with a rudimentary indication of scale from what I remember of our session). I'm designing little icons to put on the finished map once it comes through and I’m excited to see what a pro can do! 

Enjoy!
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The oringinal Bansho - June 2010 

Sketch of the new city (better scale) - Nov 2012

My stab at a colour map

More maps:
See the first draft of Arbea Major.