The Brightest Shadow: Three Cultures, Three Maps, One Region

(This is the sixth in my series of worldbuilding posts for The Brightest Shadow, leading up to the release of the second book, A Hollow Mountain.)

I like fantasy maps. Not just grand maps at the beginning of a book that encompass a story, but I also enjoy documents from the world and maps in general. To that end, I wanted to do something a little different for the maps of the first book.

Instead of a single objective map, in this post I present three different maps of the same region. Each takes on a different style and a different purpose, many drawing from the way maps in the real world have been used in different eras.

First we have Tani's map. The idea of seeing the world from a bird's eye view was actually uncommon in the ancient world, so instead many maps served as conceptual aids. This one gives you the Nelee view of the world and their neighbors: they're very familiar with Rhen tribes, but less clear about the differences in groups outside the Chorhan Expanse. If you've read the book, you can figure out why Tani took the route she did to get to Bundlin.

Second we have a "world map" from Corah, taking inspiration from the medieval mappa mundi and T&O maps. This map is even more of a conceptual aid for those focused on Coran matters, the sort of thing that might appear on a noble's wall. Like in the ancient world, far-off lands are places of mystery and the unknown. For those who stay within the Coran kingdoms, this is their view of the world.

Finally we have the map that might look the most familiar to modern eyes, a survey of the region for the sake of military exercises. The mansthein have a branch of Voidwalkers also skilled as surveyors who develop quite accurate maps, if a bit unclear on details that don't matter to their military campaigns.

I hope these maps offer a fun look into the world of Myros. There is a world map, but I won't be hinting at that until the final post in this series...