Emirates of Narwan

+Bruce Heard is posting a series of articles on the +World of Calidar's Emirates of Narwan.  This arid nation in the southeast of the Great Caldera is one of two former colonies which  exclusively worship Soltan, the sun god, forbidding all other faiths within their borders.

If you've read CAL1, you may remember that Meryath's easternmost major island, Kamearea, is also claimed by Narwan.  Up until now this is pretty much all we know about Narwan.

The new articles preview material from the upcoming CC1 Beyond the Skies.  Although CC1 primarily covers the gods and pantheons of the Great Caldera nations, in so doing it also provides significant back story and other details, making it a real treasure trove of information on the Caldera.

For the second article in the series, I created a 3D view of Narwan upon which Bruce overlaid migration data, resulting in a historical map of Narwan.  I wouldn't want to do this with regular maps, because the perspective makes any kind of measurement pretty much impossible, but for thematic maps like this, it seems rather nice.  The mountains and hills really stand out when viewed at an angle.

Here are some full resolution views of the map.

Would you like to see more of this kind of thing?  Let me know what you think.

Maps of the Day 10-13: Eerien

To the west of the Great Caldera lies the vast continent of Eerien.

Eerien, Equirectangular and Lambert Conformal Conic Projections

The top map is an extract from the world map, showing a little more than a quarter of the map, from the Great Caldera in the east to the Isle of Obb in the west, and from Feorad Island in the north, down to Omfall straddling the equator.  From north to south this area is 10,800 km (6,750 miles), and along the equator it's a little over 25,800 km (16,125 miles).  The top line of the map is of course a single point, being the north pole.

Points of interest include a warped view of Feorad Island (compare it with the Lambert Conformal Conic views in the Feorad article to see what a huge difference the projection makes); the positioning of the Great Caldera in regard to the surrounding terrain; the northern part of Omfall, another huge continent which stretches down to the Antarctic Circle; the Aesean Duct, a narrow sea passage bisecting the two great continents; and of course Eerien herself.

Eerien is home to Calidar's tallest mountains, its highest peak reaching a towering 8,925 m (29,281 feet).  As such, the mountain design is of great importance.

The bottom image shows the true shape of Eerien, projected onto a shape-preserving Lambert Conformal Conic Projection.

The next images show the progression of Eerien's pre-erosion height map design.  This is currently the most developed area outside of the Great Caldera, although other parts of the world are slowly catching up.

Eerien, Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

The top and bottom images are 3D views of Eerien, looking north from a point high above Omfall.  Although they are 3D views, the curvature of the world is not shown, though 3D view of Eerien on the surface of the globe is in the works for a later date.

The top image is a preview of the design, straight from Photoshop.  If you look closely, you should be able to make out that the mountains are all roughly the same height throughout the map - legions of white peaks everywhere.  Eerien is supposed to be extremely mountainous, but we wanted to introduce some variation to the heights.  Considering the sheer size of the base map – a staggering 22,737 × 14,049 pixels – it's not that easy a thing to fix.

However, I came up with an idea, which you can see in the middle image.  It's an adjustment mask which I applied to the base map.  There is a single pure white spot, which remains at full height.  All the rest are increasingly darker shades of grey, which pushed down the height of the mountain peaks under them.  This was all painted manually, and finally blurred before being applied to the height map.

The bottom image shows the result.  At first glance you may be wondering what the big deal is, but look closely and you should be able to see quite a lot of variation has been introduced into the mountain ranges.

One last point: did you notice all the pillars scattered across the bottom image?  These are there for a specific purpose, and of course are only there as temporary markers.  Would you like to hazard a guess as to what they are marking?  Hint: there are lots of them due to the sheer size of the map.

The answer is that they are scale markers, to help keep all the altitudes in sync.  There are lots of them because the map is split up into smaller parts for erosion, and each part must have a marker on it.  The height of the markers is 8,925 m, and on the height map they are pure white, marking the top of the world.

Without these markers, the programs which handle the height maps would make the highest height on each map white, and scale the rest accordingly.  That would mean mountains of 8,925 m all over the world!

he next image shows two renditions of the same height map.  I'm sure you'll agree that the colour version is much easier to read, but unfortunately when I need to make manual changes to the map, I generally have to work on the black and white version.  It's tricky, to say the least.

Eerien Eroded Height Map, Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

This is the second draft of Eerien.  In order to perform erosion on this massive continent, I had to split it up into six different sections, each up to 9,999 x 9,999 pixels.  Of course the sections had to overlap, or putting them together would have been very difficult, since rivers would run in completely different courses.

Eerien's erosion has resulted in some very interesting terrain.  My favourite part is the plateau, which has gained a Grand Canyon-like ravine.  Immediately north of the plateau are the highest mountains in the world, so it's a fascinating area all round.

3D Views of Eerien, Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

In this last image, we present five different 3D views of Eerien's terrain.

At the top you can see the continent in its entirety.




The middle row shows two different perspectives on Calidar's version of the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.  These are the highest mountains in the world, although it may be difficult to see that at these distances.

The plateau itself is not entirely flat, with its most predominant feature being the massive ravine which snakes its way through.  Presumably all the runoff from the mountains to the north has carved this huge scar into the plateau over many aeons.

Finally there is a closer look at the lowlands to the north of the great mountains, and then a look at the imposing mountains themselves from nearby.

That's it for Eerien for now.  As the Kickstarter start date approaches, we will continue to reveal the World of Calidar.

Map of the Day 14: Mormoroth

Welcome to the third week of daily Calidar maps.  This week we continue our world tour, with a new continent each day – beginning with the south polar continent of Mormoroth.

Mormoroth, 3D view of Eroded Height Map, Polar Stereographic Projection

First Draft, Polar Stereographic

Second Draft, Polar Stereographic

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the polar areas can be the most problematic for any world builder.  This is because it is easy to draw onto a rectangular world map – which of course warps the poles more and more until the top and bottom lines of the map represent the points of the poles.

First Draft, Equirectangular

Second Draft, Equirectangular

Calidar was no different, and the polar regions caused so much trouble that at one point we considered simply having no land in these regions of the map at all.  However, in the end we used map projections to solve the problem.  The result is the design you see on the left.

The small strip below each Polar Stereographic map is the bottom strip of the Equirectangular world map, from 90ºS to 60ºS.  In other words each of the above pairs of images displays the same area.  Note how the first draft coastline design looks smooth on the Equirectangular map, and yet hideously spiked on the Polar Stereographic map.

What I did was to redraw the coastline on the Polar Stereographic map, resulting in the second draft image on the right.  Then I reprojected the new design back to Equirectangular, and slotted it in to the world map – as you will see perhaps next week.

Mountain Design
Polar Stereographic Projection
(Cropped for erosion)

With the projection issues sorted, I'm sure you all know by now what came next: mountain designs, followed by erosion.  After Bruce gave me the okay on the new coastlines, I had to adapt the mountain design to it, then work on the height map.

The funny thing about Mormoroth is that since it lies at the south pole, most of the height map design will not be visible on any map – it will all be buried in a massive ice sheet, with only the highest mountains sticking out the top.

Undaunted by this, I went ahead and developed the area anyway.  I have yet to work out how to implement the ice sheet itself...  In the meantime, here are some views of the eroded height map – a peek beneath the ice sheet, if you like.

Join me again tomorrow as we journey north again to one of Calidar's undiscovered continents.

Map of the Day 9: Feorad Isle

Welcome to week two of Map of the Day–the Calidar World Tour!

Feorad Isle – Calidar's northernmost land, Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

Feorad Isle, First Draft
Equirectangular Projection

Feorad Isle, First Draft
Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

We begin our world tour this week with a look at the top of the world–the north pole.  There is no land at the pole itself, but there's an island close to it, which is known as Feorad Isle.  It's likely a cold, mostly frozen land, the vast majority of which lies firmly within the Arctic Circle – which on Calidar lies at 66.5ºN.

Continuing last week's discussion of projection problems, the north and south polar areas of any world pose a particularly thorny problem for world builders working with a rectangular base map, such as the Equirectangular Projection.  The problem is that areas north of 60ºN and south of 60ºS are stretched progressively more and more, until the single point of a pole is represented by the whole top or bottom edge of the map.

Feorad Isle, Second Draft
Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

Draw landforms in the normal way, and they will invariably end up spiky and squashed-looking.  You can see this in the first draft images on the left.  The solution is to reproject the map to a more suitable projection, and design the area using that projection.  Later, this can be projected back to Equirectangular and added back in to the base map – where of course it will now look stretched, but that's as it should be on that projection.

Feorad Isle, Second Draft
Equirectangular Projection

The second draft black and white images show the fixed coastlines, first edited on a Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, then reprojected back to the base Equirectangular Projection.

It's important to consider projections when designing terrain, too, because otherwise the terrain will end up just as warped as the coastlines here were.  This is why each of Calidar's continents has been designed using a projection chosen for that continent.  The Great Caldera is circular, and away from the equator, so it uses the Stereographic Projection.  Feorad Isle is close to the north pole, and so could use Polar Stereographic, but the other side of the pole is uninteresting, with no land, so instead I chose the Lambert Conformal Conic, whose shape is very efficient in this case.

Mountain Design
Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

Looking at these images again, I wonder if perhaps I have gone a little too far in reducing the spikiness of the terrain.  What do you think?  Please let me know in the comments.

After the coastlines have been fixed, it's time to build a height map, working from +Bruce Heard's mountain design.  In this case, the design was squished by the projection change, so it required quite a bit of tweaking; working in an appropriate projection is important not just for coastlines, but also for terrain design.  Even a long mountain range painted onto the Equirectangular projection maps above will be squashed down to a much shorter one when reprojected into Lambert Conformal Conic – or onto a globe.

Pre-erosion terrain design–satellite

Pre-erosion terrain design–3D view

Once the base height map has been designed, it's time for simulated erosion.  In the 3D views here you can see the map in its initial design stage, then in its finished stage.  Note the very distinctive valleys carved into the land, and also how the blobby orange hills turn into sculpted peaks.

Post-erosion terrain design–satellite

Post-erosion terrain design–3D view

As with the black and white coastline maps, the finished height maps are reprojected into Equirectangular form and added to the world map.  In this way, the world map is slowly taking form. Once its complete, we'll be able to produce accurate maps of any section of the world in whatever projection is needed.


Next time on our world tour, we will journey southwards to one of Calidar's biggest continents of all.

Maps of the Day 4-8: Building the Mountains of the Great Caldera

After the coastlines, the mountains are probably the second most distinctive feature of most fantasy worlds.  Let's take a look at the development of the Great Caldera's mountains.

The Great Caldera Mountain Design, Stereographic Projection

The first image is +Bruce's design for the mountains of the Great Caldera, painted onto the Stereographic Projection from last time.  You can see how the mountain ranges generally follow the outside of the circle, forming a gigantic rim around the ancient impact crater.  Time has worn it down, and it is broken in a number of places.

Bruce drew these lines as guides for constructing a full height map (also known as a bump map, elevation map, or digital elevation model) of the area.  I took the lines, blurred them, messed them up a bit, and converted them into uneroded mountains.

Next, I took the same lines and expanded them out, then messing them up in a similar way to create hills.  The second image is the resulting fully-detailed height map.

The Great Caldera Uneroded Height Map (First Draft)
Stereographic Projection

A word about height maps: this map shows elevations, with black being the lowest point – in this case, sea level – and white being the highest.  It takes some imagination to understand what's going on, but basically speaking the white points are mountain peaks, while the grey lines in between them are valleys, and the darker grey to almost black areas are hills and plains.

You may be wondering why such a map is necessary or even desirable.  The answer is that this map can be loaded into terrain viewer programs, which show it as a 3D model of the terrain.  Many computer games use these models to construct their worlds, and just as in those games, it's possible to move around and explore the landscape.Height maps form the basis of all of Calidar's maps, and they open up exciting new possibilities for Calidar's cartography and art.  Their altitude data can be used in conjunction with latitude to calculate a simulated climate model, which in turn can even be used to texture the world according to each area's biome.  All of this is made possible by the height map, which is why I have spent more than four months so far building, eroding and refining Calidar's geography.

The Great Caldera Uneroded Height Map (First Draft - Shaded)
Stereographic Projection

The third map, on the left, is exactly the same map, but instead of displaying low-to-high elevations as black-to-white, it uses a colour scheme to shade each height, making it a little easier to visualise what exactly is being depicted, but you have to bear in mind that the colours represent height variations, not terrain types.

Blue is sea level, light green-to-darker green is lowlands, light brown-to-dark brown is progressively higher areas, and dark brown-to-white is highlands.

Generally speaking, the lowlands are flatter than higher areas, so it's relatively safe to assume that green areas are lowland plains, or at most rolling hills.  But there could also be some lonely mountains in the green areas, too.
Now, you probably noticed that this height map (in both colour palettes) is labelled as being "uneroded".  That is to say, it has not undergone simulated erosion to carve mountains and valleys into those mounds.  This is a multi-stage process which takes anything from a few hours to a few days, depending on the size of the area and the resolution it needs to be done at.  This model is roughly 0.5 km per pixel at full resolution, and the full image is 9,999 x 9,998 pixels.  This provides a good level of detail for continental mapping, though perhaps not enough for country-level maps.

The fully eroded version of this map is the Great Caldera map with borders and labels which Bruce revealed in the initial announcement of the +World of Calidar, which you can see below.

The Great Caldera Eroded Height Map (First Draft - Shaded), Stereographic Projection

Here it is: the first completed draft of the Great Caldera's fully eroded height map.  Compare it with yesterday's pre-erosion map, and you can plainly see how the white blobs have been carved into majestic white peaks.  What was previously a landscape of blobs has become a proper landscape of plains, hills, mountains and valleys.  A lot of land has disappeared during the erosion process, carried down to the lowlands and into the sea by simulated rain and water courses, which is why everything looks so much lower.

Taking a look at the geography of the Great Caldera, at this point it becomes very clear why its borders are located where they are: the political divisions follow natural divisions in the terrain, which split the land of the Caldera into numerous smaller areas.

Note that this is the first draft; there are various problems with this map, and in fact there have been another three passes since this map was completed.  I'm quite happy with the fourth draft, so it may well become the final one.

I'm sure many will be impressed with this, but I'm equally sure that some may be thinking: so what?  Why is this useful?  Why don't you stop talking about things and just show us the finished maps?

Don't worry, we'll get to some major reveals very soon.

In the meantime, here are some 3D views of the terrain for your enjoyment.

These very simple 3D views of the Great Caldera demonstrate the huge benefit of height maps, which is to say that they are really 3D models.  Using these very same height maps, it is possible to generate photorealistic-looking landscape views.

But for now, this is not our goal; the first priority is of course to establish the terrain and its shapes by producing high quality maps of the area.  The height maps help in this, too – not only by allowing the correlation of altitude and latitude data for climate shading, but also in generating river maps; in providing shaded relief for political maps; in guiding the creation of hex maps; and other ways besides.  I hope you can see why I have chosen to develop Calidar's terrain in this way.

The shading you see here is the same simple, elevation-based shading as on the colour maps above.  Note how the flat map's colours have been adopted into the 3D view.  It's actually possible to load any image as a texture for the 3D model, so even without photorealistic rendering, you can expect to see more of these 3D views – and prettier ones, too.

More about all of this later.  This brings us to the end of our first week of Maps of the Day, exploring the Great Caldera, the heart of the World of Calidar.  Thanks for reading!  Join us again next week as we preview the shape of the Dread Lands which lie outside the relative safe haven of the Great Caldera.