Hello,
I remember the first time I opened a fantasy book and found a map. I was a kid and didn't know anything, so I was blown away. There is something about maps that immediately pull me into a fantasy worlds, making it feel so much more tangible. After that first experience, I looked for maps at the beginning of every book I read. Even today, I don't really consider a book to be a proper epic fantasy if it doesn't include at least one map. Two is even better.
When I was writing The Conquest of Kiynan, I drew a map by hand to help me situate the different characters and events. I have absolutely no talent for drawing, so believe me when I say it was ugly, complete with a yellow band of masking tape down the middle. Obviously, I couldn't publish it looking like that, so I commissioned a friend (Eric Angelillo) to create a fancy digital version.
When it came time to publish The Legacy of Lethe, I manipulated that original image in Photoshop to create the new pair of maps that I needed. As I started writing The Ordeals of Ornland, I quickly realized that more Photoshop-ing was going to be pretty ugly. So, I went back to the drawing board, literally. I found an open source tool called Krita and set about rebuilding all the maps of The Kiynan Chronicles with a consistent font, etc. This includes the maps for The Ordeals of Ornland, Dawn of Magic as well as the first two books. I am happy to share the end result of these efforts with you today!
The maps for The Ordeals of Ornland may not look dramatically different, but there are a couple of changes that you can spot with a keen eye. They point to key plot elements... If you spot them, let me know!
Cheers,
Eric P. Caillibot
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