mappamundi as campaign world map

[tetramorph]

Admin Pete linked out to some books on ancient maps and I remembered again how cool the ancient western mappamunde were!

I realized that my Dun Kells setting is really just my European wilderness setting within a larger fantastical Christian world that the mappamundi describes. My "Perilous Realms" is actually the wider setting within which lies only ONE wilderness setting among many, the faywilds of Dun Kells. (It is always nice when one's world gets a little bigger!)



Here is my idea: drop down the OS map (or any other applicable campaign wilderness map) as a wilderness per major area, e.g.:

Europe = Dun Kells
Africa = the Land of the Lost
Asia = 2 each: Siberia / Gobi

Then drop one down for the Mediterranean, Black and Red Seas, respectively. Fill in water where there is open land, and perhaps even for forest. Mountains become islands. Rivers become currents and trade winds.

It is a perfectly expandable campaign setting!

But along the edges of each continent where we are not in the OS board, I want some key fantastical places.

Here are some thoughts:

Europe: Avalon, Tanis, Baltia
Africa: Prester John's Cush, Hamunaptra (Egyptian Necropolis)
Asia: Xanadu, the Silk Route, the Middle Kingdom, Sun-Foundation Empire, etc.

Of course, there would be the earthly paradise in the far east of the Oceanic Ourobos (eventually a campaign level serpent monster!). Also there would be the antipodes to the south. Or, perhaps you would just fall off into the abyss!

Do y'all have some other fantastical places in the western inheritance that I could put on my Mappe Mundi?

Thanks!

[tetramorph]

Found this:

cartographic-images.net/Cartographic_Images/226_The_Hereford_Mappamundi.html

Amazing! Keep scrolling down and you get a list of fabulous beasts and exotic peoples of the different realms of the mappe mundi.

it is amazing how much overlaps with D&D, and how much D&D needs to add! Where are the antipodes? And the pheonix? Rad.

[tetramorph]

If the mappe mundi is the campaign world, then we need a campaign cosmos, and here it is:



And how about this for the "Dungeon as Mythic Underworld"? it is a cosmography of Dante's Divine Comedy. Dante combined the earlier tripartite universe (heaven, earth, underworld) with the Ptolemaic heaven of spheres. RAD!



So the 10 lvls of "Contact Higher Plane" now actually correspond to something:

Terrestrial (guiding spirit: Fortuna, of course)
Lunar
Mercurial
Cytherian (Venus)
Solar
Martian
Jovial
Saturnian
Stellar (Astral)
Prime

This all folds back to our discussion of Lewis' Discarded Image (which I will get back to soon, I promise!).

Weigh in, guys! What do you think?

[jmccann]

This is a great example of taking the middle ages seriously. I like the idea of swapping the d&d planes for planetary spheres. You could add some alchemical features and some historical magic too.

[tetramorph]

jmccann, yes, that is exactly what I have in mind.

I just commented again in the Discarded Image thread.

And some of my campaign description in the Dun Kells folder follows this line of thought.

More to come!

But help me out, folks: fantastical lands and cities from our own Western Medieval Heritage? I need to fill out my Mappe Mundi!

[jmccann]

Depending on the time period you might include Iceland or even Greenland, and other islands in the North Atlantic. I am thinking about having an Iceland type situation northwest of my quasi-Europe setting.

[Von]

Nobody said Avalon and Lyonesse were the same place. I have thoughts on how I would implement a distinction between them, but the thoughts may diverge unacceptably from the actual myths. Would that be welcome?

[tetramorph]

I think as long as you let your players know what you are going for, they will roll with it. What do you have in mind?