Category: Work-In-Progress

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Tower of the Moon (Work-in-Progress)

I’m not sure if this is what people were expecting when I said I was drawing a wooden tower, but I hope you like it. I sketched out a bunch of different designs for this before I started and most of them were hilariously bad. The problem was that I had this idea of a tower with a few smaller towers branching off of it and… how do I put this? It’s hard to draw that without making it look a lot like a cartoon cactus. Or one of… whatever these things are called. Still, I do feel like I got there in the end.

I’ll be taking proposals for the next location for Tir Thelandira very soon. This will be for location #3 on this map (I’ll be doing #2 last). I’ll send out a message to all patrons asking for your ideas in the next few days and I’ll start the voting in about a week. Anyway, that’s about it for now. I’m gonna get back to work. Let me know what you think so far!

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Almost done.

The main floor of Hohenzollern Castle is finished and I should have the rest colored in a few days. I might draw in a sideview as well.

This thing is a ton of work and it’s taken quite a while, but I’m pretty sure this is the sort of thing most of you are here for. I’ve never been anyone’s go-to guy for forest clearing battlemaps. Anyway, I hope you like it so far.

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Hohenzollern Castle (Work-in-Progress)

These are the drawings of Hohenzollern Castle I’ve been working on for the last week. I’m going to draw in the courtyard and the entryway on my tablet, then start coloring it all.

If you’re not familiar with the Hohenzollern Dynasty, they were the rulers of Prussia. They had one of the most formidable armies in Europe and, in 1871, they made a country called Germany, which you may have heard of.

But, no matter how impressive a performance you put on, if you want that gold medal, you’ve gotta nail the dismount. And the Hohenzollerns fell flat on their faces. Their last ruler was Wilhelm II, a man one might describe as the final season of Game of Thrones in human form.

Anyway, whatever. They had a really cool castle and that’s the important part. I’m gonna get back to work on it.

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Blackboots Camp (Work-in-Progress)

Here’s what I’m working on right now. It’s a mercenary camp, but I said it’d probably work as an orc village, too, and I think it does.

By the way, the vote for the first location in Tir Thelandira is down to the final two. It’s also a tie right now, so if you’re a patron, please go and break it. This isn’t soccer, we don’t do ties. This is hockey and play will continue until one side claims glorious victory.

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The City of Laon (Work-in-Progress)

This map is taking a bit longer than I’d expected, but it’s also looking a lot better than I’d hoped. I don’t draw a ton of city maps and I think this is substantially better than any of my previous ones. I’m coloring it now and it should be done in a day or two.

By the way, if you’re wondering why the city is laid out like this, it’s because it’s located on a very strangely-shaped hill. That’ll be much more clear once the ground is colored.

Okay, back to work. Let me know what you think!

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Glaver’s Camp (Work-in-Progress)

Glaver’s Camp is the location of one of the mercenary regiments in Tir Thelandira. Glaver’s Regiment is tasked with guarding the Dhasran mining colony, while the other regiment, the Blackboots, is closer to the forest to protect the Dhasran loggers.

I haven’t figured out everything about these two groups, but I can tell you a few things:

  • Glaver’s Regiment are highly professional, organized soldiers. Their camp is designed similar to a Roman legionary camp.
  • The Blackboots are a cavalry regiment composed entirely of scumbags. Their camp is going to be absolutely filthy.
  • The two regiments absolutely hate each other for reasons I haven’t worked out yet. If you have any ideas, by all means let me know.

I’ve got this halfway colored, so it shouldn’t be too much longer. Anyway, back to work!

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The Big Plan (Yes it’s insane, but that’s never stopped me before)

I sat down to lay out what the world outside Tir Thelandira looks like and this is what I came up with. All of this is preliminary and nothing is set in stone. Tir Thelandira is the little island on the right.

I don’t know exactly how long it would take to write lore and draw maps of all the places on all these islands, but I’d guess it would be approximately the rest of my life. That works for me. This feels like a worthwhile thing to spend a lifetime creating.

Of course, it’s not going to be a world for quite a while. It’ll be a number of islands that can be inserted into another setting. That’s what Tir Thelandira is right now and it’s what all the islands will be for a long time. In several years, there may be regions of the map that can be used as a setting by themselves. But the finished world, in which every island on that map has its own story and its own maps? That’s something so far away that you may never see it. I may never run a game in it. But that part of it isn’t for us, it’s for the people after us. It something we can create as a legacy to leave for the next generation of DMs.

Here are a few ideas I had for this world:

  • The ruins of an ancient empire, dangerous and uninhabited except for treasure seekers. Littered with colossal statues, crumbling cities and buried palaces.
  • An island populated by humans and ruled by vampiric noble families who treat the commoners as cattle. A very bleak place.
  • An island of giants who raid other settlements. Basically, super-vikings.
  • An island whose people were wiped out by a disease. Now overrun by undead.
  • An island populated by humans but ruled by giants. There’s an interesting relationship between the two groups.
  • Underwater kingdoms of merfolk and aquatic elves.
  • Greek stuff
  • Islands with cultures inspired by East and Southeast Asia, India, East Africa and Arabia. And Europe, in case that doesn’t go without saying.
  • A Polynesian-inspired region, parts of which are very advanced. Like, imagine the Republic of Venice was built by the Maori.
  • Islands at war
  • Dwarves living on volcanoes.
  • Lizardfolk with an amphibious kingdom
  • An advanced society in an arctic climate.

I’d love to hear your ideas as well. I want to make this thing and I think I’ve proven that I can. So, what do you say?

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Cliff Village (Work-in-Progress)

Drawing a village built on a cliff face is a little complicated, but I think this design should work. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I’m going for here: one, two.

Also, it’s not shown, but there’s going to be a small mine. That seems like one of the reasons you might build a village on a cliff. The other is, of course, just to do it as a flex.

Anyway, I’m gonna get to work on coloring this. Let me know what you think so far!