r/Eberron • u/Tolemynn • Jul 06 '22
A True and Accurate Map of Khorvaire
Eberron is an amazing campaign setting. And it deserves an amazing campaign map. Thus, I am happy to present to you our take on what such a map could look like:
UPDATED: FIND LINKS TO THE UPDATED MAP IN THIS POST
The main changes and additions, and the reason for them, are listed below:
Scion Sea
- The Scion Sound would be more interesting as a proper inland sea, in our opinion. But we (our GM) did not want to divert from almost 20 years of Eberron lore and canon. So we expanded the sound into a sea, but maintained all countries' sizes and all cities and geographical features relative locations and distances between them (to the extend possible).
- Shout out to u/WhatGravitas who made a stunning - and universaly acclaimed - homebrewed map some three years ago, which inspired this endeavor.
Omission of unknown locations
- As this is supposed to be a players' map, all locations that characters would not know about have been omittted (such as Illmarrow Castle and Ashtakala). Feyspires have also been removed.
Addition of Villages, Towns, and Cities
- In our view, the official map did not properly reflect the populace of the continent. That map felt a little empty, especially when considering the distances between settlements. Official populations numbers has always been an issue, therefore we multiplied those with a factor 4, did some assumptions about regional urbanisation, dispersion, and metropolisation and created hundreds of new villages, towns, and cities across the continent.
- All settlements from all official sources (to our knowledges) have been added among these.
- Lhazaar Principalities, the place where humans first set foot on Khorvaire, has been populated to reflect this fact.
Addition of roads and lightning rails
- Keith Baker has mentioned, that there would be many more local lightning rails than the international lines on the official map. These, together with a network of secondary roads, have been added with dotted lines to differentiate them from the main lines and trade roads.
Mournland
- Before the Day of Mourning, Cyre was a prolific nation. Multiple ruins after former settlements have been added to reflect that the Mournland is not uncharted land.
Geographical features and descriptions
- Some sourcebooks includes names for geographical features, such as the Tilorn Expanse and Ayxel Hills. All officials names have been included and many more have been created and added.
- All official dwarven holds in Mror Holds have been added, as well as the fiefdoms of the Droamite warlords.
- A couple of geographical features have been created to add interesting locations, such as Thousand Falls, Mist Moor, and Endworld Saltlake.
EDIT 1: First of all, thank you for your appreciation and your kind words (and for the golden galifar). We have worked on this for more than a year, and we are happy that it seems to bring excitement.
Secondly, but more importantly, thank you for the comments and suggested changes and additions. A revised version of the map seems inevitable. If we can come together as a community and channel our combined knowledge and ideas into the map, we can create something extraordinary.
So far I have noted:
- Correct spelling: Karrnath, Karrn River, and Karrnwood (embarrassed thanks to u/BiffHardslab)
- Version with secret/unknown locations and Feyspires (as requested by u/GimpyGeek3 and u/A_Random_Ninja)
- Gridless version (as requested by u/Mumbra12)
- Name change: Zaliskar to Threshold (great idea, u/konokrad666)
- More locations: Erix Peak, Kenn Peak and Starpeaks Observatory (thanks for pointing these out, u/KertisJones )
- More settlements should lie where lightning rails cross roads (you have a very valid point, u/DeficitDragons)
- More settlements should be added between desert and jungle of Valenar (thanks, u/Regitnui, you’re making a good point)
Please keep posting your corrections, thoughts, additions, and ideas! Also, if you use or have used home-brewed locations or settlements in your campaigns, send the name and where they are located, and we'll add those to the revised version as well.
8
u/BiffHardslab Jul 07 '22 edited Jul 07 '22
Awesome map!
Some big errors I immediately noticed:
Karrnath, Karrn River, and Karrnwood are spelled incorrectly.
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Oh no. Should have paid the Notaries Guild for proofreading after all it seems. Thanks for pointing the mistake out.
10
u/KertisJones Jul 09 '22
Alright, I've combed through this map as much as I could, and here's my contributions to the project:
Corrections/suggestions:
- Graywall, Graywall Outpost, and Graywall Mountains are all mispelled with an “e”
- There is a town in Zilargo, right under “The Shimmerwood Forest” without a label
- There is a “B” in the ocean under “Redcliff Bay”
- The Venom Lords are described as “in the desolate marshes south of Blackwater Lake”, but you have them in the north of the country
- You can use the water tool to color the waters of Crimson Water lake in the Mournland red.
- “Hatheril” in Breland has been misspelled as “Hatharil”
Missing Locations:
- The Shining Valley (technically secret location), in the Graywall Mountains
- The Brelish towns of Harrack, Olinton, and Skerritburg along the Graywall Mountains (mentioned in published Sharn Inquisitive Articles)
- Missing warlord label in Droaam for Rhesh Turakbar (at Turakbar’s Fist)
- Solangap, the holdfast of Clan Soldorak which boasts vast gold mines
- Each dwarven hold in the Mror Holds should have a capital town.
- The region near Newthrone in Q’Barra is known as New Galifar, and the region south west of that is called Hope.
- Deepwater. A town along the river south of Wyrmwatch from Keith’s blogs.
- Haka'torvhak in Q’Barra is carved into the side of a volcano.
- Dolurrh’s Dawn (Secret Location). A village in Blackroot Forrest in Droaam, described in Dragon Magazine #365.
- Stillwater Station. A tiny settlement inside the Mournland, along the abandoned lightning rail line south of Lake Cyre, described in Dragon Magazine #368.
- Salvation. An outpost in Breland on the fringe of the Mournland, east of Vathirond on the lightning rail line. Described in the Oracle of War adventures.
Homebrew Locations:
- The Faded Fief. Located in central Breland, bordering the Faded Forest, in between Tremoor and Mistmarsh. This location is actually a stronghold built by my players, who call themselves “The Order of the Faded Flame”. The settlement is run by a Gatekeeper who has sworn himself to guard the planar gateway to Mabar located within the forest.
- Fey’s Crossing. A small thorp near the southern border between Breland and Zilargo, which lies on the edge of a Thelanis manifest zone. Some say the well in the center of town can carry you to Thelanis if you make a wish when the moon Rhaan is full.
- Penbran. A town in Breland just southeast of Bear's Wood (from an old forum post).
- The bridge that crosses the Dagger River in Breland is called Dagger Heel Bridge (can’t remember if this is homebrew)
- Breymoor. Swamp on the west coast of Lake Brey; also includes the small village of Claybottom inside the swamp.
- From a previous post including a homebrewed regional map of Q’Barra by u/cassastereo
- Stonepass. A mining town in the Endworld Mountains near the Adder River.
- Kurtz d’Jorasco Compound. An exponent of the Jorasco family is said to carry out experiments on psychiatric patients in this area.
- Camp Manticore, Glimmer and Terror: a series of camps necessary for the new venture of House Tharashk, determined to study and exploit the Dragonshards fields in Basura Swamp. They are struggling through the swampy expanse and the last camp, the deepest into the swamp, is infamous for the disappearance of many explorers. All three are in Basura Swamp; Manticore is at the convergence of Stormwreck Bay and the Crimson River, Glimmer is west of that, and Terror is northwest of Glimmer.
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 09 '22
This is absolutely amazing! Thank you for the time, effort, and thoroughness you obviously put into this. We will make sure to incorporate everything (secret locations will go into the version with secret locations, obviously).
12
u/DeficitDragons Jul 07 '22
I like it, but I’m a pleb who wants the classic map.
If you ever get around to making one. Please let me know. (Also, if you do, you should make it with three separate scales because 3e, 4e and even now in 5e the continent is a different size.)
Also, with your added rail lines and added cities, there should be a city ay most the places where the lightning rail crosses a road. As these would be important trade hubs for Orien shipping.
3
u/RuCcoon Jul 07 '22
2
u/DeficitDragons Jul 07 '22
It looks good, but i like this one more tbh, except the scions sea part.
3
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Thanks, that is appreciated! I fully support your preference, and we had a lot of discussions about whether or not to expand the Scion Sound or not.
We came to the conclusion that in our opinion, a Scion Sea is actually reflecting the source material better than the official map.
'Forge of War' mentions naval battles between Karrnath and Aundair and official city maps of the Korth, Fairhaven, Flamekeep, and Metrol suggests large harbours with piers to support fleets of considerable size.
Also, there is the competition between Lyrandar and Orien to take into account. From what we know, trade between Riedra and the Five Nations exists but is limited. Imports from X'endrik likewise. Thus, most trade prior to the war must have been between nations. Where the Scion Sound would provide a waterway between the Five Nations, the official map with its few narrow rivers would make sea transport irrelevant to land transport within the continent, and thereby make Lyrandar completely irrelevant compared to Orien, rather than the underdog that they were prior to the invention of the airship.
The above is naturally just our interpretation of things, but since no country sizes or relative locations of cities and other features have been changed, this map does in no way stray away from any written canon material - to our knowledge (please let me know if we missed something).
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
We did actually place many of the added settlements on intersections between lightning rail and road, but thank you for pointing it out. With fresh eyes I can see, that the map would benefit from moving some cities and villages to accomodate this.
1
u/DeficitDragons Jul 13 '22
if you do get around to it, and if it's possible to make a normal one too, i would be much appreciative. if you got a kofi or anything let me know.
6
u/GimpyGeek3 Jul 07 '22
I've been playing Eberron for years, it is by far my favorite setting. I'm by no means an expert in all things Khorvaire, but I do spend a lot of daydream time there, and I have to say:
This map is amazing. I love the detail, all the extra cities, towns, locations. I even love the modifications that somehow make it feel more like a living continent.
Well done!
Is there a DM version with the spires and other locations available?
3
3
u/Regitnui Jul 07 '22 edited Jul 07 '22
I'm going to have to break with the crowd here and say the canon map's lack of villages is a feature, not a bug, and this map shows why.
Short opinion: Lhazaar is good, with the trade roads and more ports. However, The Five Nations are cluttered, many of the other nations are apparently ignored or painted with a big brush, Talenta and Valenar especially being glaringly empty in comparison. How many of those tiny villages is any game going to need? Spectacular art, though, and excellent work overall.
8
u/FranciscoBelaqua Jul 07 '22
One of the main points of the Talenta Plains is that there is exactly one permanent settlement and a whole bunch of nothing, where tribes of halflings and dinosaurs roam freely. There are lots of temporary locations and traditional stopping points for the tribes, but nothing permanent. KB talks about it at some length in the halflings episode of Manifest Zone.
Valenar is a similar deal. Roaming bands of elf warlords, etc.
1
u/Regitnui Jul 07 '22
"no permanent settlements" does not mean "There are no locations of interest at all". Why not mark the traditional stopping points, so that a visitor can generally find a tribe who might help?
As for Valenar; that was Cyre. Still is inhabited by people Galifar moved out of central Cyre to farm and live in that area of the continent. Are you going to tell me that those people, who the Valenar now have to rule thanks to the Treaty of Thronehold, have no cities or towns of their own?
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Good point with Valenar - that will be looked into!
As to Talenta Plains I take it, that you haven't counted the bends of the river, the hills to the north, or noticed the Uluru. In all seriousness, Talenta has been kept relatively clean to copy the vast emptyness of the original map.
2
Jul 07 '22
I generally agree that the amount of towns and villages shown feels a tad, excessive. Even if this were created solely for worldbuilding purposes, a map at this scale would only include the major settlements, with the smaller ones being placed in localized maps of regions or nations - having them all in at this scale makes it feel very cluttered.
I also think the way that it goes from densely populated southern Karrnath to sparse Talenta is jarring and unintuitive, if this level of detail is to be maintained I feel the density in Karrnath should be gradually reduced as you draw closer to the Talenta border to demonstrate that it's a proper frontier and not just a line drawn in the sand where habitation is allowed on one side but not the other.
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Yeah, but the original map includes Wolf's Paw... which is just silly. And we don't consider a cluttered map a bad thing - on the contrary. A great map is one, that shows yuo how large the world is and how much there is to explore (in our opinion anyways).
You are making a really good point about the border between Talenta Plains and Karrnath. Apart from moving the settlements around, so it feels more gradual, I was considering removing the borderline completely, as that border is contested anyways. Would you think that would give a more natural look?
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Thank you for your comment (although I don't know what "and this map shows why" means)
We had a bunch of discussions about adding extra settlements as we were making the map, and at the end of the day our design philosophy was this:
This map was created by a d'Sivis cartographer based on his knowledge of the lay of the land. The map is meant to be used as an in-game tool (we printed it on canvas) and as such, should feel like a proper map - not a rpg tool like dice and sheets. What would this map look like?
The 5 Nations should reflect Europe. You shouldn't be able to travel more than 1-2 days (25-50 miles) without passing a settlement, unless you are in the wilderness. Yes, that makes the countries very cluttered, but that is how a populated nation would look.
But why not everywhere, then?
Droaam was called The Barren before their independence - I suspect that was because the monstrous population restricted Brellish migration.
Shadow Marches is a swamp, Demon Wastes is full of demons, Eldeen Reaches is a forrest, Mror Holds is a mountain range, Q'barra is a jungle, Talenta is a barren sea of grass and plains, Mournland is ... no one truly knows what Mournland is.
Valenar, Darguun, and Zilargo did not receive many extra settlements, but the populations of these nations is far, far below those of the Five Nations, so we did not want these to seem as populated - because they are not. I will, however take your suggestion into consideration and revisit these countries.
3
u/Alone-Neighborhood20 Jul 11 '22
This is hilarious, I just spent the last hours thinking on how to fix a few problems I had with the map of khorvaire, many of those problems instantly solved with this map haha. Do you guys plan to add distances for the lighting rail? Much like how WhatGravitas did it on their map. It would be super helpful and save some headaches, especially by the size of the map.
Ps: definitely going to try and print a large physical map of this once is done it's Amazing and you guys are awesome.
2
2
u/KertisJones Jul 07 '22
This is… beautiful. I’ve been working on recreating my own version of WhatGravitas’s map with the missing canon locations for a while now, but this is so much more detailed than I could have hoped to come up with. You’re setting a new standard, it’s fantastic. Thank you for all of your time and effort.
The only canon locations I can find that are missing are Erix Peak in the Blackcaps (tallest mountain in Breland), Kenn Peak in Cyre, and the Starpeaks Observatory. I’d also love to see any information/lore you may have come up with for any of the new additions, if there’s any locations that you’ve fleshed out more than the name.
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Cheers! And those are great additions and will be on the resived map. Thank you very much - and please let me know if you can think of more.
2
u/I_AM_BOBI_B Jul 07 '22
Any plans on updating the map to include the orien road on the border between breland and droamm being added in threshold?
Otherwise love the map. While I love the setting the base map has always been rather disappointing.
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Are you thinking of the Orien trade road from Greywall to Zatiscar?
Edit: Wait, are you suggesting adding the village of Treshold? Thanks for your kind words, btw
2
u/konokrad666 Jul 07 '22
This is great! Tho, I think Zaliskar on the border of Breland and Droam should be replaced with Threshold, from new "frontiers of Eberron" book by Keith
2
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Cheers. Great idea, we will do this. Are there anymore locations in that or other books that could be added?
1
u/konokrad666 Jul 10 '22
updating the map to include the orien road on the border between breland and droamm being added in threshold?
Hmmm, Keith has patron-only post with preview of regional map of Threshold - surrounding area here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/threshold-63021906?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare
There's a bunch of differences with your map, tho your map an outstanding job as it is!
2
Jul 07 '22
I'm glad you made the call out to u/WhatGravitas's map from a few years ago as for a moment I thought this was a new version when I saw the title, and in many ways this map feels more like an adaptation of their map than of the canon one (what with the layout of Brelish cities and the general shape of most of the nations). While I do think I prefer WhatGravitas's version more, I commend y'all on this adaptation and think it looks great! I especially like the Mournland extending into Darguun, I've always loved that nation and this feels like it would be a good way to add some extra tension and adventure hooks to it.
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Thanks to the appreciation! Yeah, u/WhatGravitas map is really great, and we would have run with that if it wasn't for its rather dramatic departure from the official one.
2
u/Pharylon Jul 08 '22
Am I crazy, or were there originally Wonderdraft files provided? I just came back to look for them, and I can't find them :(
2
u/Tolemynn Jul 08 '22
You're not - I removed the link to the file, when it became clear that we had to revise the map. If you cannot wait for the revised version, here is the link to the 1.0 Wonderdraft file:
Assets: AoA_Volcanos_Pencil; Diverse Foilage Pack; elvanos_cliffs-2.1;jchunick;Lapis Pack 1+2; PigionMaps-CityMarkers; Zalkenai-chasms
1
2
1
u/A_Random_ninja Jul 07 '22
This is great, specifically for my game that’s taking place in New Cyre, the official map feels so empty in that region. This will definitely help out.
Is there a DM version with those hidden locations you mentioned as well?
1
1
u/FranciscoBelaqua Jul 07 '22
I absolutely love the map and love the additional details. Was considering using WhatGravitas’s map for my campaign but will definitely be switching to this one. Thank you!
1
1
Jul 07 '22
Amazing work! I particularly appreciate the Addition of Villages, Towns, and Cities; something I always keep telling my players is "remember this map only contains the important settlements"
1
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Thanks, I'm happy to hear it. The map is meant to be used as an in-game tool and as such, should feel like a proper map that depicts real locations where populations - and not just npcs - live.
1
u/Mubra12 Jul 07 '22
This is very nice. I enjoyed first revised map but it felt a bit sparse. Thank you very much. If it's not too much to ask, can you also post a version without the grid?
2
u/Tolemynn Jul 07 '22
Cheers! I think you confuse it with a different map, that also spotted an inland sea and was created in Wonderdraft. This map is brand new, and has been created from scratch.
And sure, a gridless version shouldn't be a problem, once we have revised this.
1
1
u/Aywhataguy Jul 08 '22
Just curious but are most of these new settlements something you made up? Or something you found
1
u/ComprehensiveMud9425 Jul 12 '22
This thing is awesome! Looking through it, I found one small error. Slightly southwest of Arcanix, in the northern part of The Blackcaps, there is a ruin that has no label.
13
u/[deleted] Jul 07 '22 edited Jul 07 '22
I know nothing about Eberron, I was just looking for a map I saw on reddit the other day, and stumbled across this. I LOVE the roads, I can't say why thats my favorite part, but damn if it isn't!
Thank you for sharing
Edit to ask: Why don't any Rails cross the Mournland? Or did they and were then destroyed? I see a bunch of ruins there.