Late Update

Wow, it’s been awhile. I have been working on several projects, on and off, but haven’t taken the time to update.

I have a new update for the map I’m creating for Matt Hoffman (technospiritualist):

Commissioned Map

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And I recently (re-)started my world building project. You can follow my progress at Worlds of Sand, where I hope to update at least weekly. I’m also open for all sorts of commissions! You can find me on the Cartographers Guild forums or just e-mail me through this blog (I’m thinking of setting up on Deviantart too).

I am still planning on rearranging this blog a bit, which means some posts may disappear pretty soon as I move things around. I’m not restarting, though; I just want to move some things to a different home (like those photos of Paris, randomly taking up tons of post-space …). Most everything will reappear somewhere else at some point, so if you’re just coming to the site and wondering if you missed something, you probably haven’t.

Hopefully I’ll be able to update more often now!

 

Maps of Harmak + Demogron

So I spend some time, now and then, on the Cartographer’s Guild forum browsing the maps and exploring the tutorials. Last weekend I offered to create a map for a member (Rossik), and here’s the current result:

I’m in the process of adding a swamp/marsh around the lake area. Having posted an earlier version of the map, I got a request from a new user, jbwncster, for a map of his own location. The current version, which is missing the fields on the main island (Demogron), is here:

I still have to add some fields to Demogron, and I’m considering adding another lake? But once I add the fields I’ll be posting it to the Cartographer’s Guild forums for the commissioner to check. It’s an interesting mapping style, and I think it looks alright, but of course I’ll need to keep working on it. I recently found some great “mini-tutorials” here, that I’d like to try.

Once I get these ‘done’, I’ll be working on the new version of my map of Graven (my own map), which is in a totally different style! I hope to have something to post sometime tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

Language development

Today I’m working on my conlang, finally. I’ve redone the phonology (sounds) of the language, but still need to update the grammar PDF on the conlang page. I’m also modifying the name of the language slightly, to Mijanyu (from Mijanu). I’ve created the radicals for the semanto-phonetic writing system, which is supposed to look like the Chinese Seal script. I need to do some serious modification/editing of the glyphs I’ve roughed out, but now that I have them roughed out I have something to work with. I have also started translating a poem called “Upon the Tip of a Needle” (Guhatthaka – Suttaniddeso), a Buddhist text. I only have the first stanza right now, and I’m sure there’s quite a bit wrong with it, but it’s an interesting look at where Mijanyu is now. Here’s the stanza in the Latin alphabet:

Elun, eleau, sen, for mauna
ー Nena.ar.na lorai denyu manyu deni
Duyu aduyu kena ja
ー Meri.na kena laya.lan daleausu

The period in the text above indicates the connection between particles and words, where the particles mean nothing without the context of the word they’re attached to. At the moment, there’s a character for each word and particle, but I’m reconsidering that idea. I still want 3 writing systems, so I’m thinking it might be best to use the block alphabet for simpler parts of the language (particles, prepositions, and conjunctions).

Once I’m done translating the poem (there are 7 more stanzas), I hope to have the writing systems more or less completed, although I certainly won’t have all the semanto-phonetic characters done. I’d like to make a recording of the text as well, but I’m not sure yet.