This is the first floor of the Generalife colored. There’s still a second floor left to draw, but that shouldn’t take more than 3-4 days to get done. I’ll release the whole thing once that’s finished.
Okay, I’m gonna get on that. Let me know what you think so far!
So, the Alhambra is a fortress in Andalusia, Spain with a number of palaces inside its walls. The largest of those palaces is the Generalife, which is what I’ve been drawing a map of. I’ve been to this place and it is absolutely epic.
There’s a staircase called the water stair, which has water flowing down channels in the railings. There are also three fountains in the middle of the staircase, which might seem unusual until you realize that there are fountains everywhere. Like, there are just fountains right next to other fountains. These people were very serious about proper hydration.
There’s also the Sultana’s Garden, the Canal Garden, and the terraced High Gardens. It’s a big map with a lot of detail and it’s going to be a lot of work, but I think it’ll be worth the effort.
After this, I owe you a spelljammer. And then, I’ll be drawing two places in India. First, Akshardham Temple in New Delhi, then the island fortress of Murud-Janjira, which won last month’s Cartographic Congress. Sound good? I hope so. All right, back to work.
So, let’s talk about the next big project that will follow in the footsteps of Brazenthrone and the Black Loch. I want to do something bigger this time. A lot bigger. I want to make a world.
It’s not going to start as a world, though. That’d be a lot of blank space to fill at once, so we’ll start with an island or two. And, like the Black Loch, I’ll start adding locations to the islands and drawing maps of them, developing the lore along the way.
When the islands are fairly well developed, we’ll expand the map. Add in a few more islands and start building those up. Give them their own inhabitants, their own identities, their own histories. Maybe a volcanic island with a viking culture, a tropical island with a wealthy trading hub like Zanzibar, an island of imperial ruins overrun by the undead. Maybe we’ll add the tip of a continent at some point, or maybe it’ll just be islands forever.
What I’m proposing is a project that wouldn’t necessarily have an end. There is no “finished” with this. It would just get bigger. I’m proposing a project that could, in theory, continue for the rest of my life.
To be clear, this wouldn’t really be a ‘world’ for a long time. It’d be an archipelago for at least a few years. Like the Black Loch, it would be something to insert into another, wider world. Maybe that’s the best way to think about it for now. Some islands. Before I commit to any more than that, I’d like to see how it goes. I also want your input on it, which is a large part of why I’m posting this.
Speaking of which, I’d like to have this project be shaped by patrons’ input much more than before. Ideas people submitted in the Black Loch Conclave had such a positive influence on how it turned out that I decided I wanted to make that a regular thing with the next project. So maybe every 3-4 months, I’ll ask patrons for ideas for new locations, hold a vote and draw maps of the top 3. I’ll probably also ask for your ideas on the themes of new islands as we expand.
I want to add that I will continue drawing maps that aren’t a part of this project as well. There will still be maps of spelljammers and the feywild and all that. Also, I won’t be getting started on this for a few months.
So, those are my thoughts. If you like what I’m proposing, if you hate it, or if you have a better way to do it, let me know. I really want to get an idea of where people stand on this.
Okay, I’m gonna get back to work. I’m currently drawing a map of the Generalife, a palace in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. I’ve been there, it’s awesome. It’ll make a great map, I promise.
I’m giving away the Patrons’ Edition stuff for this map to everyone. You can download it all here. When I drew those cave and tunnel maps earlier, I was thinking about giving those away, but I decided I should give you a good map instead. So here it is.
With Charwall finished, the Black Loch is finally done after a year and a half. It’s been a huge amount of work drawing around 30 maps and 100 tokens and writing lore for it all, but I feel pretty good about it and I hope you like how it all turned out.
I want to say that I’m truly grateful to all the patrons who have supported this along the way. It felt like an incredible honor to be given the ability to spend two years drawing Brazenthrone and it’s no less an honor to have been able to put another year and a half into making the Black Loch as well.
Moreover, I’m grateful to be able to have your support for this despite the fact that I’ve given away usable versions of all the maps for free. I’m fairly sure that costs me money. I have no idea how much, but my rent gets paid and I’m not going to stop doing it. I feel very fortunate not to have to.
Well, it’s 9am and I’ve been up all night, but let me mention a few things before I go. I’ve updated the Black Loch Codex and the History and Lore Overview with Charwall. Remember when I made a post titled “The Black Loch: History and Lore Overview – FINAL UPDATE FOR REAL THIS TIME“? Okay, that was a lie, but this is the final update for real. Like, really real. Actually, legitimately very real. Anyway, it’s in the codex and you can download the new version here.
Well, that’s it for now. It’s been quite a journey and I hope you like where it all went. I’ve got another one in mind and I’ll tell you all about it in a day or two. Until then!
This is Charwall, the last map in the Black Loch. The underground canals are on the right. I hope you like it so far! Well, I’m gonna eat something and start coloring.
These are the rest of the tokens for the Black Loch. You can download the complete collection here.
The collection also contains the previous tokens I made for the Black Loch, as well as the ship tokens, so there should now be tokens of every creature I’ve mentioned in the lore, as well as every significant character.
With that crossed off the list, there’s only one thing left to do: draw the last map. The final location is a place called Charwall and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it until I found some inspiration in a couple of proposals for the Black Loch Conclave.
The first proposal was for a colony of dragonborn who worship Kaliphex the Immortal (the dragon in the picture above). The second proposal was for a kobold settlement in a series of watery tunnels– a sort of “Kobold Venice,” if you will. Those proposals sparked some ideas and I put them together to create Charwall.
Basically, Charwall is a settlement of draconic races, with dragonborn, dragonkin, half-dragons and kobolds living together. Most of the residents aren’t from the underdark and they’re not exactly sure why they came to Charwall. They just know that they were drawn to the place, by something.
That something is Kaliphex the Immortal, an 11,000-year-old red dragon who resides nearby. It’s unclear even to Kaliphex what’s causing this, but she came to the Black Loch to be alone and now a group of dragonkin appear to be worshipping her. I’ll figure out the details of what’s going on as I work on the map.
As I said, this will be the last part of the Black Loch. It’s been quite a journey so far and I hope it’s turned out as well as you’d hoped. I’ve got another journey in mind after this is done and I’m looking forward to telling you about it.
Well, I’m gonna get to work. Let’s get this thing over the finish line.
I’m fully prepared to admit that these are some of the most uninteresting maps I’ve ever made, but that’s basically the point. There are plenty of interesting maps in the Black Loch, but sometimes that’s not what you need. Sometimes you just need a cave or a tunnel without anything special in it, because it’s random encounter time and the party will be fighting *rolls dice* …giant bats.
That’s what these are for. They’re not specific locations marked on the regional map, they’re for the places in between.
Of course, the Black Loch is a sea, so there will be plenty happening along the coast as well. For those encounters, there’s the Black Loch naval battlemap. While I originally made it as a backdrop for ship battles, I think it’s just as good for encounters on land as well. And it’s plain enough to be fairly reusable.
There’s only one thing to do before I get started on the last map in the Black Loch: draw tokens. I’m going to make tokens for all the various creatures mentioned in the lore, as well as the notable characters. I already made tokens for some, so I just need to knock out the rest.
Anyway, I won’t ask what you think of the maps because, let’s be honest, they might be the most boring maps I’ve ever drawn. But I hope they’re useful.
Well, I’m gonna stop typing and start drawing. I’ll be back with some tokens in a few days!
You can download the free version of the Black Loch Codex here.
The Black Loch Codex compiles the Black Loch History and Lore Overview, as well as all the DM notes, in one PDF.
I made a version for non-patrons as well, which has all the DM notes I’ve given away for free so far. I also threw in the DM notes for the Grinning Widow, since I think some of the suggestions about how to handle the crew might be useful, particularly for newer DMs. It’s basically about how to deal with your party traveling in a ship with 20-30 crew without letting the players treat them as their own private army. And make no mistake: they will try.
Anyway, I hope everyone’s happy with it. I’ll update the codex with the last map once it’s done.
Next, I’ll be drawing some simple cave and tunnel maps. Nothing fancy, just something to use as backdrops for encounters that happen outside the marked locations. I’ll be back with those in a day or two, then I’ll get started on drawing the rest of the tokens. And after that, I’ll draw Charwall, which is the last map left.
Okay, I’m gonna get to work!
Somebody told me there was a location missing from here, so I double-checked it. As it turns out, there were four locations missing. Anyway, it’s all fixed up now.
Here’s the new PDF version.
Okay, here’s the final version of the Black Loch regional map with all the proper location names written in. There’s no Patrons’ Edition version of this map, I’m just going to give everyone all the stuff I made for it. You can download it here.
There’s a blank version of the map in there as well, so if you want to change the names, move things around, or hide some of the locations from your players, you can.
Okay, I’m gonna finish updating the Black Loch History and Lore Overview. I should have that done tonight or tomorrow. Until then!
