Heretic Spellblade - Maps, Books 1 to 3

So, I finally got around to doing the finishing touches to the map of Doumahr. It's been 95% done for months now, but I've kept putting it off because I kept telling myself I should put more cities, towns etc on the map. I added a few that I'm highly likely to use or reference in the next book or two, but I'll add new locations as necessary in the future.

Better that I have a map than not. Plus, lots of locations that are never visited doesn't help.

Anyway, the maps cover Books 1 to 3 - which just shows some border shifts. They should be labelled here, and they'll be going up on my website with the release of Book 3. I'll be updating the past books with them as well. Once I get my hands on a paperback with a printed map, and confirm the quality, I'll update those as well. What goes in the book will be a small part of the map, because this is too big to be readable on a phone or ereader.

The map itself likely raises a few questions, and I'll answer a few here.

First, this is the world of Doumahr as far as the characters know it. The desert is impassable and nobody goes beyond the ocean. I've been dodging the topic in the books because there's zero reason for anyone to talk about it. The exact reason for why they can't leave is one of two options, and it depends on how I might approach a potential sequel series.

Second, yeah, this ended up looking a lot like Europe. I imagined something a little different at first, but the actual directions I gave in the books and certain geographical restrictions ended up like this. I tried to spice things up a little, like with Trafaumh. This is one of the downsides of creating a map after writing the books, instead of other way around.

Third, while I love atlas style maps and ascribe to a limited level of realism, there's stuff that is obviously a bit weird. The Gharrick Mountains should have a more drastic impact on the dryness of the land to their east, even with that huge ocean.

Finally, there are size and demographic things to talk about. Everything after this point is super nerdy shit that I love and limit myself on because it would consume my life if I let it.

Doumahr is pretty damn big, even if it's smaller than actual Europe. Fantasy is horrible at realistic scale. I take some liberties as a result, because reader expectations don't necessarily align with reality. As much as I'd love to go nuts and do the research to ensure the accuracy, I've learned the hard way that it's a bad idea (I once built a relatively simple population and economy models of a kingdom - never again).

There's a lot of detail not on the map. The Anfang Empire alone is the size of Great Britain in Book 1. All of Great Britain. Look up how many castles are in England alone, and remember that those are the ones that have survived nearly a thousand years. The map can't really contain the sheer amount of crap that goes in real medieval nations.

I'll also be handwaving at least some of the distance and demographic/economic stuff. These sort of details can really bog me down or kill a story for various reasons, and they provide minimal benefit to most readers.

For distance, the issue is narrative in nature. Armies are slow . My general rule of thumb was 20 miles a day, but the actual figures go down far lower. Realistic army speeds can kill narrative momentum, so I speed them up. Then you get into problems such as "how fast can a rider on a fast horse ride?", "how fast are the automated carriages, given they often have escorts?", and "how far did Narime teleport in that one scene in Book 2?"

Of course, all of these problems would be solved by not using an atlas-style map. But I like this style. I've also made a lot of them in this style, so it's not that much effort to create new ones, other than being indecisive.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts or if you spot any mistakes.