The Cull’Thaine Estate

The Cull’Thaine Estate is home to the drow matriarch of House Cull’Thaine, the ruling family of the city of Vlyn’darastyl in the Black Loch.

Something about this map got me thinking. There are two parts of the Black Loch— the setting I’ve been making maps and lore of– that came from the Cartographic Congress: the Cull’Thaine Estate and Vlyn’darastyl, where the estate is located.

Over a year ago, a patron named Matt proposed an idea to the Cartographic Congress that won the vote and became Vlyn’darastyl. One of the locations marked on that map is the estate of House Cull’Thaine. A month ago, a patron named AN7 proposed a map of that house’s estate. That proposal won and now we have this map, which three people have had a hand in creating.

Without Matt, Vlyn’darastyl wouldn’t exist. Without AN7, the Cull’Thaine Estate would be a dot on the map. And the Black Loch was my idea, but none of it would exist without the rest of my patrons. So, this has become something of a collaborative effort over time. And I’d like it to become more so.

I want to give EVERY patron a voice in how the Black Loch comes together. So, here’s the plan: later this month, I’m going to take proposals from ALL patrons for a new location in the Black Loch. Then, I’ll have a vote on those proposals, which all patrons will be able to participate in. We’ll have a series of runoff votes until one proposal remains and that will become a new location in the Black Loch.

After I’m done with the next map, I’ll send out a message to all patrons calling for proposals. Then, once I’ve given a week or two for everyone to submit their ideas, I’ll start the voting. I don’t know how many proposals to expect, but the Cartographic Congress usually gets 5-10 proposals every month, so I think 40+ is possible here. Realistically, if I put 40 options on a single ballot, no one is going to read them all, so I’ll hold multiple votes, once a week, with 10 options on each ballot. The top two proposals from each will go on to a final ballot, which we’ll whittle down to one winner.

Anyway, that’s the plan. I’ll send out a message with more details when I’m done with the next map, so you can just reply to that if you have a proposal. Also, to be clear, a separate Cartographic Congress vote will be held as usual.

The next map will be a Man-o-War-class spelljammer, but first I need to make a quick edit to the map of Vlyn’darastyl. The Cull’Thaine Estate looks different from the way I drew it on the city map, so I want to make a revised version that matches. I’ll have that done in a few hours.

EDIT: The revised map of Vlyndarastyl is finished: annotated version, non-annotated version.

Okay, that’s it! If you’ve got any thoughts on the map, the vote or anything else, let me know!