Shibboleth: the Torrent, Eleventh of the Demiurges

Amongst the most esoteric of the ancient Demiurges, Shibboleth was once the patron of wanderers, travellers, portals and crossroads. Parts of these aspects remain, though have been absorbed by various cultures or might remain in some regions, embodied by saints or other religious figures. Shibboleth is remembered in some regions, particularly in the north of Sammaea where its Magnum Opus, the river Shibboleth, remains as one of the largest and culturally significant rivers in Elyden.

Little is Known of Shibboleth historically. What is known is that like its siblings,

Shibboleth sought to nullify its castigation. Where other fell into despair Shibboleth travelled Elyden and beyond – it is though that Shibboleth was the most travelled of the Demiurges, spending much time in the Otherworld as well as the Firmament above and the Atramenta below. This likely warped its mind and it spent little time with its children, the merills, who grew without the safety of a Demiurge guiding them. By the time of the Demiurges fall it had disappeared from the mortal realm entirely, becoming a solitary thing, obsessed with the beauty of the Otherworld to which it had become a slave.

Its physical form, if any, was likely lost to its sojourn beyond the mortal plane, and is not remembered. All scholars know is that it is most commonly represented by the symbol of a whirlpool. Its corruptions (deities and philosophies that stem from its original teachings) embody a sense of the inevitability of fate, that mortals have little control over what happens in the world. This is not a nihilistic view of fate though, and most worshippers find comfort in the fact that their futures cannot be changed –what will be will be!

The river Shibboleth is the only known remaining object attributed to the Demiurge Shibboleth and flows through no less than nine nations and territories, watering them. Though her waters are not as fertile as they once were, she remains the life force of northern Sammaea, and were it not for her the region would be far less populous than it is.

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So, having just finished off the Map of Venthir and Tzallrach I thought I'd carry on with some maps, specifically the Atlas Elyden: the 5th volume of the long-mooted Encylopaedia Elyden that I've been working on.

I've already posted links to some mock-ups I had designed for the Atlas maps (

here and here), though never really got very far with them. I've decided to base this map on those so as not to entirely waste the work that went into them, though I will be applying some subtle changes.I thought I'd try create a full map as a 'proof of concept' that the Atlas can be done. And I decided on a particular region - the river Shibboleth - a map that I've wanted to draw for a very long time and one that fulfils a role similar to that of the Nile in the real world. It is seeped in myth and legend and is known to be the work of the Demiurge who gave it its name - the Eleventh, Shibboleth; the Torrent.The attached image is my work so far on the map. Not much different to the original versions linked to above. I hope not to take too long to finish, to see if I like the style. The image is A3 in size and will appear as a 2-page spread in the atlas (as all maps will), and though the map appears in portrait orientation here it will appear as a landscape in the atlas - the dotted line denotes the spine.