Everyone at Moon Design is a map geek. I’ve got a 14th century map of the Old World up on my wall (a lovely map that was probably based on an Arabic original and has Norway labeled in Latin as a place of “Trolli”) and another 15th century map of Central Asia. But I also love maps of fictional places – especially Glorantha.
Some years back, Rick Meints and I visited Greg Stafford (back when he lived in Berkeley) and made copies of his huge archive of Gloranthan maps. Since then, our crack Moon Design map has slowly proceeded on the Great Gloranthan Map Project – we are almost finished with Dragon Pass and Kethaela.
As a result of this project we’ve discovered lots of new details about Dragon Pass. The place is a whole lot higher and more mountainous than many had previously thought. Boldhome, the city of Sartar, is higher in elevation than Innsbruck, Austria at about 3700 feet. Waterfalls, rapids, cliffs, gorges, and other rugged terrain is common – think the Carpathian mountains, the Dolomites, or the Cascades, not Wales or Scotland. A land of fantastic beauty and great danger.
The first installment of the map project will be in the Sartar book. We have elevation maps, maps showing geographical landmarks, maps of the tribal boundaries, and more. And we are using never before seen originals from Greg Stafford as our guide. Here’s one of Greg’s original sketches showing the boundaries of the tribes of Sartar, alongside the final map: