Proposal for an official map of Erebus

[azatote]

I've been long searching for a map representing Erebus, with all its civilizations and landmarks. I could only find one non-official low-resolution old map, with only the civs from Fall from Heaven, which still gives a good overview of the world shape and seems to be consistent with most campaign scenarios and Pedia entries.

Spoiler The old map with a graphical overhaul :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/he13mlrt94yhbjz/erebus-ffh.jpg?dl=0

Then, I tried to figure out where the new civilizations from Ashes of Erebus could be placed on the map. I also drew small portions of land to make the map toroidal.

Spoiler My proposal for a new map, first version :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwgxpyvgjwei512/erebus-v2.jpg?dl=0

Spoiler Discussion about the civilizations' position :

Archos: they live in a mountainous area. I think they are probably quite in the North, next to the Amurites.
Austrin: they are explorers, so they should be in a remote region. I put them on an empty peninsula next to the Cliffs of Hastur.
Chislev: their location is pretty obvious, as it is a plain next to orcish territory, where they have fled from their home jungle.
Cualli: certainly next to their Mazatl brothers.
D'Teshi: a priori in a desert, not too far from the Amurite border nor from Mekaran lands. As I could not find any suitable land, I temporarily placed them where I could.
Dural: no information available, except that they are close to the Austrin. Probably on a coast, maybe somewhere in the South. I chose to place them next to the Kuriotates where I had a little space available, even though there is not supposed to be a civ between the Kuriotates and Sheaim.
Hamstalfar: logically next to the other elves, in some remote area of the Umbrawood.
Infernals: their position is known from the Wages of Sin scenario.
Mazatl: next to Sheaim lands. The problem is that there is not much space there for both them and the Cualli. An other option would be south of the Elohim, close to the Aduro Straights.
Mechanos: according to Maer's pedia, they live between the Bannor, the Sheaim and the Luchuirp. As these three civs are not adjacent to each other, I left the latter and put the Mechanos south of the Grigi plains.
Mekara: in a remote region of the Calabim empire, for instance next to the Khazad border.
Mercurians: next to the Elohim, as in the Wages of Sin scenario.
Scions: [edit] in the south of Erebus, near the southern frozen wastes and east of the Sidar across a narrow sea.

There are currently some problems with this map, as I'm not happy with the position of some civs (notably the undead and the lizards) and the shape of the Elohim-Sidar region. The map is not consistent with the Black Tower scenario (though I still find strange that the Black Tower is on an island) and I may have missed some indications from the Civilopedia.
Please comment my map and tell me what I should change on it.

 

[Alsark]

For the Chislev, they'd probably be directly next to the Bannor:

The Chislev people have long lived in small tribes of one or two villages each, though consider themselves to be one tribe bound by their culture and language. The nature of this fractured nation was altered forever when Jonas Endain led the orcs from Braduk the Burning in war against the Bannor. The Chislev had always been a peaceful people, but the march of the orcs swept through their jungle home and whole villages were slaughtered and burnt to the ground. Many of the Chislev fled from the onslaught and fell back to the plains, but the losses suffered were intolerable.

So the Chislev were likely directly in between the Clan and the Bannor, but then fell back to the plains. Presumably, this would be the plains right near where they were: so I'd put them either just north or just east of the Bannor, rather than on the other side of the Jungle.

Reading Valledia's profile, I'd really think the Elohim, the Amurites, and Infernal would all be next to each other.

And aren't the Illians supposed to be right next to the Letum Frigus?

 

[cthom]

i don't think the lanun are all that useful in a pangea style map. just my opinion, that's why i don't play that kind of map.

 

[azatote]

Alsark, you're right about the Chislev, I'll move them a bit closer to the Bannor. Let's suppose their jungle was just south of the Pyre of the Seraphic, and after being expelled they fled a bit farther to the east.
I know about this in Valledia's Pedia, yet it's inconsistent with the other sources: the Amurites must be in the North as they're close to the Illians and Doviello.
I'll move the Illian marker as well, that's true that even though they may expand quite a lot in the unoccupied frozen wastes, their capital should be close to Letum Frigus.
And the Lanun starting position is derived from the Fall of Cuantine scenario. It actually concerns Hannah only, as Falamar seems to be quite nomadic. And there are plenty of isles in there for them to settle.
I forgot to place the Jotnar, I suppose they would be in the mountains just like the Archos.

 

[azatote]

I suspect that no one cares, but after reading some more lore, I've done a few changes to the map. The D'Teshi go to the desert where they belong, in a relatively remote area close to the Malakim. I placed the Archos closer to the Bannor, as Corane's pedia tells us the Bannor send spies to them. This liberates more space for the Jotnar in the mountains west of the Amurites.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Shouldn't the mechanos be close to one of the dwarven factions? I thought their lore was that they spent the age of ice underground with the dwarves.

 

[azatote]

I didn't know about them being underground during the age of ice, where did you get that? Maer's pedia tells that the Mechanos share borders with the Sheaim and the Bannor, and that they have close trading bonds with the Luchuirp. As I couldn't satisfy all these conditions at the same time, I decided to place them between the Bannor and the Sheaim (though I had to push a bit the Kuriotates for that). I would like to place them next to both dwarven civs, but I didn't want to screw up all the rest of the map for that, especially since the indications in the lore are sometimes contradictory (which is normal given that most contributors didn't have a map of Erebus in mind when writing fragments of lore).

 

[black_imperator]

Something to remember too is that the nations aren't necessarily continuous. For various reasons, outposts were built and expeditions were launched.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I didn't know about them being underground during the age of ice, where did you get that? Maer's pedia tells that the Mechanos share borders with the Sheaim and the Bannor, and that they have close trading bonds with the Luchuirp. As I couldn't satisfy all these conditions at the same time, I decided to place them between the Bannor and the Sheaim (though I had to push a bit the Kuriotates for that). I would like to place them next to both dwarven civs, but I didn't want to screw up all the rest of the map for that, especially since the indications in the lore are sometimes contradictory (which is normal given that most contributors didn't have a map of Erebus in mind when writing fragments of lore).

Looking through all the lore I seem to have been mistaken. There is a reference to the Mechanos learning their tech from the Dwarves shortly before the Age of Ice and that is all.