Shen Zhou and it's geography

As promised, my next post would be about creating the maps for my campaign. I will discuss why I made my maps, how I made my maps and what I still need to add to the maps in a later stage.

I will start with why I want these maps. In my 'To Do:' post, I already explained why I wanted some maps. The main reasons are that it really helps my players out, when trying to visualise my world in their heads as we play. It is impossible to have 5 or 6 people imagining something in exactly the same way, but with some visual aid it is a lot easier to bring them to something that is close enough.
A map will also help me when designing the kingdoms and the cities. The Gobi desert requires a different type of person and a different city structure when compared to the Himalayan mountain range or the lush farmlands of the south. A map will help me define these areas before I make my kingdoms.
It is also possible to decide what kind of area my kingdoms would be in, and then place them in a map, but that would create a world less based on reality. My preference is sticking with something realistic, to make it easier to absorb the amount of information that will be available.

Next up is how I made my maps. The first thing I need is a baseline, so I went to google and found a semi-large blank map of china. I want this, because I want to add my own names, as well as define my own regions. Taking a map with existing borders will only make it harder for me.
In that blank map, I want to outline the borders of the ten kingdoms. However, it is strange to just randomly draw these in, as I want them to feel natural. The next thing I did was look for the physical geography of China on google. I found several images that were of no help, and some that were quite useful. With the information I found, I coloured in my blank map to have a rough idea what the different terrains will be like.

Below you will find the map I created. I also sketched in the borders I felt would naturally occur

As you may notice, I have not added any rivers in the map. I will add these in a later stage, because I might change the flow of rivers a bit to suit my needs. The borders and maps will, and can change as I progress through my preparations.

Most countries are formed using natural borders. A river, a cliff, the treeline of a forest; all these physical features are used to beacon off the end of a territory. If you look at the borders of many countries, you can see how the physical geography played a role in determining the borders. In Africa, you can see what happens when it doesn't follow these rules, but is divided using a blank slate, giving borders a straight line. Hence the borders I will create will also follow the natural flow of things, but I will influence them by allowing certain borders to have grown beyond their natural place.

The next step was to take these natural borders, place them in my blank map and enter all the kingdoms. To place each kingdom in the world, I looked at each kingdom and decided in what kind of area they should be in. Below you will find an overview of every clan with their preferred region.

Name	Animal	Preferred region
Kui	Bear	Mountains
Sanzuwu	Eagle	Mountains/plains
Mamien	Horse	Steppe
Luduan	Wolf	Forests
Tianlong	Dragon	Anywhere central in Shen Zhou
Bashe	Spider	Swamp/Mountain
Peng	Bird of Paradise	Mountain, with some fertile lands
Xiao	Monkey	Plains near ocean
Taotie	Pig	Rich farmlands
Jian	Swan	Near the ocean

To be fair, I had this list already before I started making the natural borders, so I used this to go to a working version of the borders straight away. I also knew that I wanted certain kingdoms to be larger than others, so I did not hesitate to make some area's bigger.

Below you will find my map that I will use for now, outlining the borders of each kingdom. The names are the animals I associated them with, as the Chinese names have not yet stuck in my mind. 

I feel that this map opens up many alliance options. The only one that really has an issue is the Spider kingdom, but I have special plans for them, so there is no worry there. I am thinking of moving them slightly though.

Then the last part of this post. What do I still need to do in these maps. As I mentioned before, I still need to place the rivers in there and see how this might affect my borders. I am happy with the borders as they are now, so I will need to decide whether I want the border to shift, or the river to shift. Both are an option, but I will see how this will play out in the future. The next thing I need to look at is the placement of the Spider kingdom. They are very isolated, and I think it's possible to move them up so they also border the Horse kingdom. Another important thing is to add the cities and important places in Shen Zhou, for easy reference.

The last thing I want to do is make another map, combining the maps I have in a more schematic way. It must clearly show the borders of the kingdoms and all the interesting places, but I also want them to show the physical geography using symbols perhaps, instead of colours and a legend.

I hoped this post would be less lengthy, but I guess I have too much to share to make short posts. As always, if you want to share something with me or if you would like my insight on something I have discussed, feel free to contact me.

I don't think I will have the time to make a post on sunday as I will be away for the weekend, but if I won't make it on sunday, I will try and post on monday latest. In my next post I will discuss how I will design the ten kingdoms and how I will set up my lore sheets.