Doohl wrote:
Huh. Why is there always a Reach? Beautiful map. You might want to consider consolidating fonts, because the mix of the stylized one with a regular serif looks a little off. | |
Zagros5000 wrote:
So are you making your own language or something I do worldbuilding in general, and constructed languages are included in that. Think of, for example, Tolkein with his legendarium and how the Lord of the Rings was just one story in a much broader tale. My website for this is just detailed versions—sometimes very incomplete—of things I've had notes about for ages. For example, in Evernote I have about 150 notes on various topics in the setting, ranging from fashion to building styles to plants to animals to religious beliefs to political structures. I also have a massive, 70-page, 34,000-word Google Docs file that is also just notes on the setting. Some of those notes are very old and no longer match my vision for the setting, but there's a lot there that's still applicable. If you're curious about the language in particular, it is documented here and is called Early Heartlandic/Late Cólþạrcic. That documentation, though, presumes at least some background in linguistics. Doohl wrote: I've been working on creating a fictional country recently, for a novel I want to write. I like the map, though the coloring scheme for it looks a little awkward right now. I think your best bet is to have two maps, one a geographic map and the other a political map. Overlaying two distinct sets of data like that often doesn't work out too well, and makes things look cluttered. I wish I had any sort of artistic talent; at best, I just have nice handwriting on occasion. For a long time I've had a very broadstrokes-layout of this region and adjacent areas in my head, and I've worked on maps for the setting before but I'm not terribly great at it. This is my most-recent attempt, though I plan on doing more revisions.  That's supposed to be an area of about 900,000 km2 (roughly the combined area of France and Germany). North-South it's about 1500km, and East-West about 600km. I believe when I worked it out before, it would take a well-fed, well-prepared army on good ground about 42 days to travel the length of the country, or a courier on a quality mount1 could make the trip in about 14 or 15 days. One of my biggest complaints is that the region is far too "square", which does not often happen in real life. I have some ideas of how to fix that with future revisions. 1Horses and mostly all other real-world and standard-fantasy flora and fauna do not exist in my setting, though some have analogues. It's pretty fun. I agree about the fun part! I enjoy worldbuilding for its own sake, without further goals. | |
Kozuma3 wrote:
That looks awesome af Thanks! LummoxJR wrote: Huh. Why is there always a Reach? I've actually taken notice to that... I don't know. I mostly pulled the names from the darkest depths of my imagination. I guess I've just been influenced by all the fantasy entertainment I've consumed over the years! And excellent point on the fonts. I did have a reason for using two different fonts, though - I wanted to emphasize that the normal serif fonts are for the names of the political regions, and the stylized names for smaller points of interest (cities, etc). Just a little trick I thought could be used to make reading the map LESS confusing, but I think it ends up doing just the opposite. Popisfizzy wrote: I think your best bet is to have two maps, one a geographic map and the other a political map. Yes, I agree. I initially planned on making two, but got lazy. Maybe I'll get around to make a proper geographic map, soon! I've actually written quite a bit of lore around this country of mine. I've thrown everything I have thus far into this little doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/ 1cTWY_WwHTdFfnAjKdcPTQfSLEo00TtWx1JMWZaUvjPY/ edit?usp=sharing | |
I decided to give a go at my script in a calligraphic form, with pen and ink. I'm still pretty amateur at calligraphy, so it's not the greatest, but here it is:
 Turns out, my script is calligraphic form looks like I totally ripped off tengwar! This says, Éþisạsj nire osej elpëþët ci.which roughly translates to, These truths we do profess. | |
As the creator of that language, legitimate question:
Can you read through it, yourself, and completely understand it? Or do you have to consult your notes? What about writing? | |
With both the language and the script, I have to consult my notes, but there are certain words and characters I recognize. Conlanging isn't really about "becoming" bilingual, though.
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Popisfizzy wrote:
With both the language and the script, I have to consult my notes, but there are certain words and characters I recognize. Conlanging isn't really about "becoming" bilingual, though. Only Fạþnjíþorcos túlncresjojrems consult their notes. | |
 This is after practicing for a few hours today. While the script is still obviously a focal point of this, this time it's mostly about me getting a tiny bit better at calligraphy. A ton of work, and a lot of ink, but I think I'm getting somewhere. | |
 Basically the same thing as the above, but it also includes what the script says without translation. | |
you are by far BYONDs best language maker person.
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I realized that there's a small mistake in both of those, in that I'm missing a single diacritic in my script. The EH/LC text says what I meant to write, and the translation is right, it's just that I'm missing that one diacritic, so it doesn't matter too much. The resulting sentence is actually kind of hard to translate due to how English grammar works. Probably the best translation would be, "The truth of some great god we do profess."
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Took a break from script stuff for the moment; I'm nearly out of good paper for it, which I'll have to buy once I have some money from my new job. In the mean time, I decided to start messing around with map stuff, which I've wanted to do for a good long time. I started fairly small to begin with, so I can work up to get a good sense of scale for everything and make it consistent.
 This is the shoreline and basic geographic features of the city of Cértucojnaj Cólþạrctes ("Grandbridge-on-Cólþạrc" or "The Grandbridge on the River Cólþạrc"), capital city of the Kingdom of the Lower Cólþạrc and of the First and Second High Kingdoms of the Heartland, as well as of the Heartland Empire. I intend to first make a topographic map of the area—which should be easy, as it's a quite-flat region—and then build up from there to figure out where to place things. The oldest structures in the area are from the islands (dating back to when the city was called Ōlawījè Qišūlū-wṑ, Far Jungles language for "City on the Bay") and then new structures span outward from there. The stuff in my script is simply the name of the city, though quickly and somewhat poorly done. I do like the general style of it, though, and may expand upon it and do it better. | |
I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly? Rivers don't flow north to south, they flow downhill following local topography. Even so, this river is flowing "downwards" from top to bottom in this image. I won't qualify it as "north-to-south", though, as the cardinal directions are not inherently meaningful in this setting. I do use them in my notes, but they are simply arbitrarily assigned.
Also, my monitor was apparently dead when I got up, so that's nice. I might be able to borrow one from my friend to hold me over until I can buy one. | |
Popisfizzy wrote:
Also, my monitor was apparently dead when I got up, so that's nice. I might be able to borrow one from my friend to hold me over until I can buy one. you dont have an hdmi cable? | |
Nope, but even if I did I have nothing to plug it in to. It seems the problem with the monitor is getting power to it/getting it turned on, and I don't have a spare monitor.
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Popisfizzy wrote:
Nope, but even if I did I have nothing to plug it in to. It seems the problem with the monitor is getting power to it/getting it turned on, and I don't have a spare monitor. ill pray for you tonight. whats a good prayer for strength in your language, ill recite it irl so the gods will give you an hdmi cable and a tv | |
That looks awesome af