I used to love maps - that's why I got into this whole damn business. Now I'm sick of the sight of them. I'll live a happy life if I never have to use a compass again." — Frustrated Cartographer, Barian, Umqher
Well hello again!
Quick update from me - I've been busy making the Toreworld into something that can be read by other humans (aka cleaning up some of the articles/procrastinating further on CSS). I found that I couldn't really expand more on settlements and provinces until I made sure that my maps were up to date, and this gave me an excuse to try out some new mapping software.
I looked around about and eventually after looking at a couple of examples, I treated myself to Wonderdraft. I'm so glad I did. It's exactly the software I've been looking for. I had tried to create the world map using Azgaar, and while that's great for just about everything, I had a really hard time drawing the continents exactly how they looked in my head as it only lets you start with pre-generated landmasses. I got close, but the final result with Azgaar was awkward and inaccurate. With Wonderdraft, I've finally got the continents just as I want them.
This map of the continent of Meddlemark was my first attempt - it's a bit crowded, and I might redo it at some point, but it shows what it needs to, and for that reason I'm mostly happy with it. My second attempt, with the continent of Meraqia, went a little better; see below:
I spent a few hours with these maps because the software is so good. I plan on doing the maps for each country next, but that won't come until after I've finished writing the articles for them.
In terms of what else I've been working on - I decided to immediately reprivate the world because after looking at a few others in the community, mine felt bare and the CSS barely legible. I stripped back on some of my hacking (I seriously have no idea what I'm doing. Lol.) and I tried to make some articles more reader-friendly in the hope that I might be able to go public again. It's still a mess, but it's better than it was.
Speaking of CSS, I would be remiss to forget to mention and credit the wonderful
Solaris, with which I used their amazing CSS for the tooltips and scrollbar, as well as learning how to use columns (barely) and getting inspiration for the wikipedia-like 'See Also' footer which I'm slowly implementing across articles. Seriously, if you haven't looked at their world already, please do. It's stunning!
I also tried my hand with a couple of prompts. They aren't excellent, but they are two story ideas that I've been meaning to flesh out for years now and fit (Kinda) with the Worldbuilding Summer Prompts (2024):
The
Green Sickness is a pretty big plot point in the first novel, and it contains some spoilers, but as I didn't want to spoil the
whole thing, it's barer than it could be, and I didn't generate any pictures as they might be a bit grim.
Marriage in Croibhism was fun to write - this one had pictures that I generated using
Microsoft Designer A croibhic marriage happens in the first scene in the prequel novel, so this was really fun to expand on, and though I'll probably go back to it at some point, I'm happier with it. I also got to test out my new knowledge of columns and dropcap fonts, so I hope it's worth it!
As of what's next, I'm planning to work on some more prompts, in the hope that I will get down the main articles for this world so that any prospective reader has a solid foundation. These will include the prospect of the 'Breakwater Gates' and the 'Deadwater Turns' which are huge spoilers for the books, but foundational principles for the Toreworld, the main characters, and other important articles.
I'm aiming to get the Copper Badge by the end of the month - here's hoping! I'll let you know if I do.
Happy worldbuilding!
~Pfeffermin
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