Westeros and beyond

December 3, 2013 3:46 PM

Jonathan Roberts is a fantasy mapmaker, who produced the maps for the official Game of Thrones atlas. He talks about mapmaking to Wired here. He also has a website with lots of nifty maps, as well as tips on making your own.
posted by Chrysostom (22 comments total)

The best thing about DMing AD&D back in the day was drawing the maps. "Valley of Skulls". "Bay of Femurs". "Shinbone Ridge". "Forest of Scapulas". "Clavicle Caves". "Mt. Tibia". "The Pelvis Lakes". "Toothsville". All in the Skeleton Lands. Endless creativity and imagination. Other excellent lands included The Muscular Wastes and the Organ Isles. The only limit was how detailed the encyclopedia anatomy pictures were.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:07 PM on December 3, 2013 [8 favorites]

I refuse to click on any of the links because I am afraid that I will find out that this post is not about the Chief Justice's obsessive hobby life.
posted by vorpal bunny at 4:30 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is awesome.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:33 PM on December 3, 2013

...and deserts surrounded by forests [will] challenge a reader’s suspension of disbelief.

Wrong. The Secret Desert is an important component of any serious campaign.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:41 PM on December 3, 2013 [4 favorites]

I found some of the place names in Westeros a little cringeworthy. but then again, I haven't written a best selling fantasy series that's been adapted for television

Shipbreaker bay
Old Town
Flea Bottom
King's Landing
posted by mattoxic at 4:43 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

> "Valley of Skulls". "Bay of Femurs". "Shinbone Ridge". "Forest of Scapulas".

Or by contrast, from our campaigns: "Plains of Fart", "Keech (= Poop) Bay", "Bogey (= Booger) Island", "River Sludge", and the delightful town where most campaigns started, "Grody-on-the-Sludge".

(despite this, we all turned out okay)
posted by scruss at 4:51 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

And some more Roberts previously posted by a devilishly handsome poster.
posted by barnacles at 5:14 PM on December 3, 2013

At this point in ASOIAF, you could make most place names variations on any of the following:

-Kinslayer Landing
-Sisterfucker Bay
-Brotherfucker Bay
-Murderous Dwarf Hills
-Poisoner's Cove
-Oathbreaker Lane
-Regicide Gables
-Childrapist Falls
-Execution Grove
-Torture Mews
-New Flayingston
-Hodorburg
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:17 PM on December 3, 2013 [4 favorites]

I found some of the place names in Westeros a little cringeworthy. but then again, I haven't written a best selling fantasy series that's been adapted for television

Shipbreaker bay
Old Town
Flea Bottom
King's Landing
posted by mattoxic

I think we're shielded from the prosaicness of a lot of our real-world place names just because the place-names are in langauges different from the ones we speak. In England, you've got places named Land's End and Newcastle, which sound right in line with Martin's names. I'm typing this in Minneapolis, a city whose name would be ridiculously prosaic if it were in English and not a made-up combo of phrases from different languages.
posted by COBRA! at 5:36 PM on December 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

And now that I think of it, I'm just a few hours' drive from International Falls, Thief River Falls, and Warroad, which would all fit right into Martin's names.
posted by COBRA! at 5:37 PM on December 3, 2013

-Cousinfucker Bay
-Revengington
-Bastard Green
-The Orphan Isles
-Whoreton
-Eunuchville
-Pestminster
-Horkshire
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:41 PM on December 3, 2013

-Hodorburg

Pronounced Hodor.
posted by Artw at 6:02 PM on December 3, 2013 [5 favorites]

It seems when I see a lot of these maps of imaginary places they all follow the motif of how Earth is; more water than land. I want to see some that are more land than water.
posted by ZaneJ. at 6:10 PM on December 3, 2013

It seems when I see a lot of these maps of imaginary places they all follow the motif of how Earth is; more water than land. I want to see some that are more land than water.

Athas, for example, from the Dark Sun universe.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:13 PM on December 3, 2013

-Whipping Heights
-Punchadelphia
-Stabograd
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:29 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Grabarse Valley
Daughterharem
Cripplefields
Killington
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:57 PM on December 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

You mean Killington?
posted by Chrysostom at 7:18 PM on December 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Maimington
Stabwound Bay
The Mayhem Isles
Facepunch-on-Syphillis
posted by dogheart at 7:21 PM on December 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

Sidenote: many towns in Upstate New York end in the word "kill", which means "creek". This led to a very stupid PETA campaign in which they tried to get Fishkill to change its name. Fishkill is, of course, no more hostile to fish than the Catskills are to cats, or as Arthurkill is to Arthurs.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:23 PM on December 3, 2013

I want to live on Warroad, though I would probably regret it later. I can console myself by living near Kill Creek.

It seems when I see a lot of these maps of imaginary places they all follow the motif of how Earth is; more water than land. I want to see some that are more land than water.

Here's one for you. Might seem a bit familiar.

In the realm of sci-fi, my personal favorite more-land-than-water map is Mars with oceans.
posted by honestcoyote at 7:30 PM on December 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yes, Chrysostom. I would have linked it myself, but that's an almighty pain on a phone, on the bus.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 9:11 PM on December 3, 2013

If you like these you'll enjoy S. John Ross's maps of Uresia. He's definitely more on the hand-illustrated look side of the spectrum, and his texture trick is useful for many things besides maps too.
posted by 23 at 5:46 PM on December 4, 2013