Author: MattMilby

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The High King’s Palace – Complete

Well, there it is. A little later than I’d hoped, but with my computer degenerating into a mass of dysfunctional electronics that necessitated several full hard drive wipes, I suppose that’s to be expected. You know what’s funny? I wiped my SSD several times over and you know what’s still there? Two things: Europa Universalis 4 and Stellaris. Apparently Paradox Interactive makes some highly resilient software.

Anyway, I need to get caught up, so I’m going to do the bridge map that I promised next, then the Cartographic Congress map, which will be a mine and mining camp. After that, more Brazenthrone. I’m not sure what part yet.

Also, sometime in the next week, I’ll be posting a second edition of Brazenthrone History and Lore.

There’s an annotated version and DM notes for this map on the patreon.

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Sorry for not posting, Windows tried to brick my computer.

So, about a week ago, Windows found a problem with my PC. I didn’t notice anything wrong, but Windows decided there was a problem anyway and offered to help. Click here to fix it. Sure, why not. One reboot later and my computer is a toaster with a keyboard. Thanks, Windows. Thanks for helping.

So between then and about an hour ago, I’ve been going insane trying to get this thing back up and running. System restore, failed. System reset, failed. Full wipe and reinstall, failed. I don’t even know how that can fail, but by god it did. A few times. I’m not even sure how I got it back up and running, but I guess I finally mashed enough buttons to get it to work again.

Anyway, that’s why the next map isn’t up yet. It’s also why I haven’t responded to any messages in the last week. But my machine is running again, so give me a minute to reinstall Photoshop and I should have the rest of the High King’s Palace up in a day or two. Again, sorry, everybody.

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The High King’s Palace – Second Level – Featuring the Actual Brazen Throne

If you look at the top-center of this map, you’ll notice a large chair. That is the city’s titular Brazen Throne. It’s a large, tarnished hunk of brass that has been the Brasshand clan’s royal seat for several thousand years. In case you’re unaware, a lesser-used meaning of the word ‘brazen’ is “made of brass.” It didn’t get its name for being cheeky.

I’ll release the rest of the palace next, including the High King’s treasure vault, which is a gigantic, Scrooge McDuck-style landfill of money. I’ve been looking forward to drawing it and I hope you’ll dig it.

Anyway, here’s the version without the labels. There’s an annotated version and other stuff available to patrons, if you’re interested.

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Brazenthrone – The High King’s Palace – Ground Level

This is the first of four floors of the High King’s palace. This took a while longer than usual because I laid out all four levels before finishing this one. But with that out of the way, the next three should come pretty quickly. Look for the second floor in around three or four days.

Well, like (I suspect) a lot of you, I recently got off the emotional rollercoaster that was the last episode of Game of Thrones, and… I really need to lie down. Jesus.

No labels here. There’s an annotated version blah blah blah patreon.

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Whitebarrow Manor

Here’s a version without the secret doors.

This is the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress, based on the proposal by Senator Ross. It’s designed to be a haunted house with a number of secret chambers, although I can imagine a few other uses for it. The largest of the secret rooms in the cellar were left unfurnished to make the map more flexible, allowing different DMs to imagine different dark secrets inside.

Next up is Brazenthrone‘s High King’s Palace, then a guarded bridge. There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons, if you’re interested.

Well, I’m off to go see an actual castle today: the Rock of Cashel. It may not be the largest castle, but it’s definitely a contender for Most Badass Name. It’s mostly unroofed, so let’s hope the weather doesn’t get too Irish. We’ll see.

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Brazenthrone – The Hall of the Long Banner

Here’s the first of Brazenthrone‘s several residential districts. I know these residential districts aren’t really the sexiest parts of the city, but I’m going to try and keep them interesting.

Next up is last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, then back to Brazenthrone for the High King’s Palace, which I intend to run absolutely buckwild with.

Here’s an alternate version of this map with the market stalls removed. I made it for people who intend to use Brazenthrone as an abandoned ruin. DM notes for this map are available to supporters.

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Many Thanks! And also, Mont-Saint-Michel

Yesterday was a big day. The good people of reddit took quite a liking to Neuschwanstein and I just wanted to thank all my patrons, new and old, and anyone else who can’t afford to support me, but has given me an upvote or shared my maps with a friend.

When I started this, I decided to try and make the kinds of maps I’d never seen before and that nobody else makes. I wanted to do big, ambitious stuff and I hoped that there were people out there who liked it and were willing to help me keep making it. As it turns out, there are. So, thank you to all of you. It really is a big deal to me.

Also, before I go, I should let you know that some people on reddit talked me into doing a map of Mont-Saint-Michel. It won’t be in the next month or two, but it’ll happen at some point. Just thought you should know.

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Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

Here’s an alternate version with the tiles angled to follow the walls in the keep.

I was going to explain all the things that aren’t accurate about this map, but it’d take forever and it doesn’t matter anyway, so let me just give you the short version:

  • Only the bottom and upper two floors of the keep were finished and the unfinished floors currently contain a gift shop and a cafeteria. Since I thought that might spoil the mood a bit, I took some liberties and drew in what was intended to be there: servants’ quarters, guest rooms and a “Moorish hall.”
  • The cellar is in the right place, but I couldn’t find a floor plan, so I made some stuff up. I was tempted to draw a dungeon, but there is no way there’s a dungeon in there.
  • Nothing about this map conveys the ludicrous degree of splendor in the finished parts of this castle. It really is jaw-dropping. Have a look.

Anyway, I hope you like it. There’s an annotated version of this map with 83 rooms numbered and labeled, as well as all the usual stuff, available to patrons.

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Work In Progress: I bit off more than I thought and I’m chewing as fast as I can.

I seriously thought this whole thing would take a week. All of it. I was very, very wrong about that and I’ve come to realize the scale of this project more and more as I’ve been working on it. I do like the Neuschwanstein maps so far, but I’m not sure I’d have signed up for them if I’d known they’d take this long.

The picture above is what’s left to do. Most of the pencils are done and I’ve got a lot of it inked. I expect it to take another four, maybe five days. For those of you looking forward to Brazenthrone, I’ll balance this out by drawing all of the High King’s palace at once.

Here’s what the next few maps will be: the Hall of the Long Banner (Brazenthrone), the Cartographic Congress map (a haunted mansion with secret passages), then the High King’s Palace. Sound good? Alright, I’m gonna get back to work. Despite my repeated requests, this thing steadfastly refuses to draw itself.

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Neuschwanstein Castle – First and Second Levels

This is the first map I’ve ever made of a real place. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who was known as “the Mad King.” He was born in the 1800s and was really into Middle Ages architecture, so he had this built as a sort of idealized fantasy castle. I’ll be honest, I can relate to this guy. Except I’m not the king of Bavaria and I can’t afford to build these things for real.

My understanding is that most of the rooms of this place are empty and I wasn’t able to find information on what a lot of them were actually meant to be, but since most people won’t be using this map as Actual Neuschwanstein Castle, I figured I’d come up things to fill them with.

Also, the cellar is completely made-up. There is a door there, which is visible in photos and the place does have a cellar, but I wasn’t able to find any information or floor plans to indicate what it looks like, so I just made it up. Everything else is drawn from various floor plans I found.

I’ll draw the rest of it next, but I thought I’d drop this off for now.

An annotated version of this map is available to patrons.