An Asian-themed fantasy map for the fanfiction story Solitary Narcissus by GoldenAngelFeather on Asianfanfics.com.
About the Fanfic Behind the Map
Being a lover of Chinese period dramas, and especially those with strong female characters, this fanfic has become one of my favourite ongoning fanfics. It's like watching a period drama that's adjusted to your own preferences on directing and cinematography. (Because you imagine it on your own, right?)
The story follows a physically and mentally strong modern-day girl, Lee Jia, that transmigrates into the relatively feeble body of a nobleman’s daughter, Tang Jia. Which naturally leads to a lot of action-packed, funny, cute, passionate (enter Jin of BTS who apparently is her fiancée), and definitively unconventional scenes.
Exploring the Map
Exploring a map is always interesting because you can find new details that you might not notice on first glance. Here are some "stories" hidden within the map:
There are two "dragons" hidden within the map that are sort of entangled to form a yin and yang sign.
HINT: The dragons' eyes would be the dots of the yin and yang sign.
SOLUTION: The Dragon Gulf and the Dragon Tail Mountains with the island Eye of Ying Long (龙 - lóng，is Chinese for dragon) and the lake Eye of the Twin Dragon as the two dots of the sign.
HINT: The dragons' eyes would be the dots of the yin and yang sign.
SOLUTION: The Dragon Gulf and the Dragon Tail Mountains with the island Eye of Ying Long (龙 - lóng，is Chinese for dragon) and the lake Eye of the Twin Dragon as the two dots of the sign.
Can you find the town that is named after the shape of the lake it is situated next to?
HINT: The meanings of the names are explained on this map's project page on Asianfanfics.com.
SOLUTION: Yu Di (雨滴 - yǔdī) is Chinese for raindrop. The lake next to the town has the shape of a droplet. It is situated on the right-hand side of the map next to the Da Li Mountains.
HINT: The meanings of the names are explained on this map's project page on Asianfanfics.com.
SOLUTION: Yu Di (雨滴 - yǔdī) is Chinese for raindrop. The lake next to the town has the shape of a droplet. It is situated on the right-hand side of the map next to the Da Li Mountains.
If you have decent geographical/geological knowledge: There is a mountain range that spans all the way from the left to the right side of the map, even though not all of it is shown and labelled as mountains. Can you find all the map elements that belong to it?
HINT: A part of it is submerged below the sea.
SOLUTION: The Treasure Mountain Range (see worldbuilding below) consisting of the Asut Mountains, Odao island and the island chain it is part of, the Apricot Hills, as well as the Zen Mei Mountains.
HINT: A part of it is submerged below the sea.
SOLUTION: The Treasure Mountain Range (see worldbuilding below) consisting of the Asut Mountains, Odao island and the island chain it is part of, the Apricot Hills, as well as the Zen Mei Mountains.
If you speak a bit of Chinese: Can you find the provinces that are named after their location or special characteristics of their location?
HINT (for the non-Chinese speaking): 东 - dōng, 南 - nán, 西 - xī, and 北 - běi are the four cardinal directions in Chinese. Shanghai is a city "above the sea". And 沙碛 - shā qì is a literary noun for desert (sand desert).
SOLUITON: Qi Province (western province), Dong Province (eastern province), Hai Province (province at the seaside), Sha Province (province near the sandy desert).
HINT (for the non-Chinese speaking): 东 - dōng, 南 - nán, 西 - xī, and 北 - běi are the four cardinal directions in Chinese. Shanghai is a city "above the sea". And 沙碛 - shā qì is a literary noun for desert (sand desert).
SOLUITON: Qi Province (western province), Dong Province (eastern province), Hai Province (province at the seaside), Sha Province (province near the sandy desert).
Credits and Acknowledgements
The content of the map was developed together with the fanfiction's author. A huge thank you to you, GoldenAngelFeather, for letting me do this map for you and for not losing your patience with me even until the very end! I really had a lot of fun working with you!
For the exact naming credits, see this map's project page on Asianfanfics.com.
I used Photoshop brushes created by TyrannoNinja on DeviantArt (brushes for palm trees and cacti) and by DaneStabels (assumed) on Brushes8 (brushes for firs and grass). However, most of the Photoshop brushes I created myself. Inspiration for the pagoda icons were the Sketchy Cartography Brushes by StarRaven on DeviantArt.
The background image of parchment paper is from maddagone on DeviantArt.
Although the map was created as a student project during the course "Cartography Lab" in spring 2018 at the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation, ETH Zurich, it was without doubt a privately motivated project too.
Worldbuilding
Solid worldbuilding during the draft phase at the beginning saves a lot of adjusting and concealing of discrepancies during later project stages. Plus, maps look more realistic, if they "make sense".
I started with some basic thoughts on plate tectonics, which lead to the overall terrain. This, in turn, dictated where rivers flow and gather in lakes and - together with the placement on the globe - where what kind of local climate prevails. From this I deduced the local fauna and flora. All this together finally served as a basis to determine where settlements emerged and prospered, which areas warrant a war, or where they got their names from.
Workflow Sneak Peaks
Creating this map for a fanfiction story included both: Putting an existing world into a map - that is traditional cartography - and actively contributing to the world building process. And as this map was created for someone else, the latter was a highly collaborative process.
To successfully create this map, it was thus essential to have a sensible and efficient workflow that still leaves room for creativity, i.e. allows large scale changes until the very end. This is especially important because the world, that this map depicts, is still being created even now in 2023: The fanfic has yet to be completed.
