Maps

Oh the places you'll go...

Maps are often considered some of the most valuable resources available to anyone who travels around the world. To get to where you need to go without the use of a global positioning system, you have to know where it is, and most importantly how to get there. Explorers chart maps to unknown regions and then sell the information to the highest bidder. Cartographers the world over required skills most people wouldn't think about. They're not just skilled artists capable of Imagining the land from high up above with alarming accuracy. They are skilled in the ways of navigation, as a map is useless if it doesn't the right information a navigator uses to reach their destination.
It's easy to underestimate the power of a sheet of paper. Such things are mundane but a well-crafted map can make all the difference in the life or death situation brought on by a grave navigational error.

A Proper Map

A proper map will always contain the following things

1. Accurate depictions of landmasses, including potential landmarks like small islands.
2. Accurate portrayal of jet streams for Airships, usually depicted in red, blue and yellow based on time of year when the streams change
3. Illustrated numerical values to account for Coriolis Effect, longitude and Latitude, and average wind speed and direction in the form of a wind-rose.
4. Star Charts with appropriate zodiac symbols, and overlays for different parts of the world.

Cartography is a particularly underrated skill. Anyone can paint a picture. Add a sea monster here, a cute little gust of wind... tracing the land and marking the borders exactly as they should be? Marking exact place of every known settlement, every known airdock? Marking the roads, the jetstreams, the windrose... making a proper map is something else entirely

— Cartographer aboard The Icarus

Creation

With the rise in use of Airships in the world. Cartographers had to figure out a successful way to map the sky as opposed to the ground below it. This began a massive reform in the process of making maps. The solution was to create several semi transparent overlays that one lays on the primary map. Maps often come in several layers and these overlays can be anything from wooden stencils, to thin and pliant glass sheets.

Layers

The first layer is a map of land masses and oceans in the area that is being mapped. This layer features longitude and latitude lines as well as other elements that are isolated to traveling by land or by water.

The next layer is usually an overlay of the sky depicting the sky regions above the areas mapped. This overlay is usually only used by those who travel by air.
The final layer is a set of star charts that usually come with smaller overlays depicting constellations. This overlay is used by all those who travel as an effective means of determining where you are and where you are going. Other overlays do exist such as positioning of the Moon and Sun and are usually only used for those who travel on particularly long trips. The main reason for this is because one must know the time of day, wind variables and the positioning of celestial bodies to know exactly which direction to travel to meet the destination. This is used almost exclusively by Airship to have to consider The Coriolis Effect to reach their destinations.

Trademarks and special additions

There are many other things that can come with a map. Oftentimes, a cartographer's selling their map will include tools that are the same make and model they personally used when crafting it. This can include a spyglass, a compass, an abacus, recorded data on weather, landmarks, social and cultural information, and data on flora and fauna native to the areas mapped. It isn't uncommon for someone buying a map to leave a cartographer's Guild with their arms and pockets full, but their wallets empty. Navigational tools are importance and by no means would a guild swindle their patrons. There are some less than reliable cartographers who sell their poorly made maps and subpar equipment to anyone stupid enough to not venture to a guild to obtain what they need.

Cartographers

Cartographers are often valuable members of a ship's crew. Explorers often higher than to map out new regions they find, or correct mistakes on maps they currently have. There are many explorers who isolate their work strictly to the creation and addendum of maps.

Paper Towns

No cartographer would sell a map without first adding a form of Maker's Mark to the finished product. This usually comes in the form of a landmark, star formation, settlement, or some other feature of the map that is entirely fictional and made up by the cartographer who created the map. These Paper Towns, as they are called, serve as an effective way to call out anyone who would steal their work. These creations are usually a secret that is kept very close to the cartographer and is rarely ever revealed