First of, here's the most recent version of that map: http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/843/map5c.png
Sadly I might have lost that particular version but I'll just redraw it in case. The counties in Metinna were too large after all
You got most of my provinces right. I say "my provinces" as I have played around with the borders of the Nilfgaardian provinces a bit to correspond better to the - in book terms - more accurate Ortelius map.
One of my changes was to put in Toussaint. In the version I initially posted Toussaint is way too large (you labelled it Geso). I shrinked it in the version I linked above.
Ah, now it makes sense, thanks. Still, if I really HAD TO say something about the current map, I'd give Maecht those two southern regions of Geso that stretch to touch Metinna, and I'd split Maecht's southern branch between Ebbing, Etolia and Gemmera. Otherwise, it looks like it's all and done.
For the map making, I'm afraid I couldn't be able to help much, but the two of you should be enough, I hope. If you need anything else though, I'm willing to lend a hand.
Ah, now it makes sense, thanks. /> Still, if I really HAD TO say something about the current map, I'd give Maecht those two southern regions of Geso that stretch to touch Metinna, and I'd split Maecht's southern branch between Ebbing, Etolia and Gemmera. Otherwise, it looks like it's all and done.
For the map making, I'm afraid I couldn't be able to help much, but the two of you should be enough, I hope. If you need anything else though, I'm willing to lend a hand. />
Pick a region like Etolia, Gemmeria and and think up duchies, counties and baronies.
Take Nazair as an example: It is based on Old English / Anglo Saxon. Most of the county names are either canon or invented by Dovydas of Kovir (and to a lesser degree by me). Then I filled the baronies with actual existing Old English city/village names.
This has to be done for most of Nilfgaard. And for the North the same thing is necessary on barony-level (there aren't any baronies as of now).
I am planning to generate most of the files right from the google docs document. Putting it there would make it into the mod pretty fast
As a sidenote, heraldry I have so far:
At the moment I am using flags copied from other mods in place of the ones where no canon versions exists. I guess it will stay like this at least for a while
I currently removed the map files from the subversion repository to keep the size of it down (I had to constantly re upload those large files).
The missing files can be downloaded from my Dropbox. I am handing links to that out per PM.
- Some towns, temples and castles to fill in the baronies;
- Duchies, since we know a couple or such;
- Counties where there's a big blank space, since otherwise they'll keep the name of their main city...?
So for example, Vizima, together with some invented baronies, lies in the county of Vizima, which is in a duchy for which we shall find a name. At least that's what I guessed from the region names on your maps, is it right? In fact, scavenging information from maps and the Wiki, counties seem to have those same names. Sometimes it happens with a duchy instead, like Ellander, or even kingdoms like Creyden. Aaah damn.
For the North the county and duchy map is pretty much finished. If there is a name for a region I went with that, if not I took the most important city/castle for it. Example: The county of Vizimia lies in the duchy of Vizima.
I might change an invented county name for a better sounding one but that's it pretty much.
For Nilfgaard ... not so much. For some regions there's only a small numer of cities/regions known. I actually did a LOT of scavanging already. The ones I found are listed in the google docs document (page 1). If someone has suggestions for holding names, he can edit them into the county listing page. Nazair is in there as an example. Canon names are in color.
Every country can have 1-7 baronies (minor holdings below the counties). At least 1 of them will named after the county (it's the actual holding there, the county's capital). Around 4 holdings need to be listed for every county i.e. a lot. A name has to be provided for every "slot" to allow new holdings to be built.
Btw. I am working on a scenario editor kind of program to make editing in data easier.
Well not quite. A county can allow 1 to 7 holdings. In the end I need on average three baronies per county (not counting the capital). That'll be somthing like 1200 baronies. That's why I am not very picky when it comes to barony names. Bad ones can always be replaced lateron
Those non canon baronies in Nazair are mostly real life existing English cities with their Anglo Saxon names. Not optimal put it'll do for now. If someone takes offense I can of course remove the most obvious ones (Stoc for instance is present day Stoke).
If you can come up with better stuff go ahead, show me />
As for the county names: Most where invented by Dovydas of Kovir some are pseudo Anglo Saxon translations of Sansmerci, Mortblanc, southern coast and last march.
Well not quite. A county can allow 1 to 7 holdings. In the end I need on average three baronies per county (not counting the capital). That'll be somthing like 1200 baronies. That's why I am not very picky when it comes to barony names. Bad ones can always be replaced lateron
Those non canon baronies in Nazair are mostly real life existing English cities with their Anglo Saxon names. Not optimal put it'll do for now. If someone takes offense I can of course remove the most obvious ones (Stoc for instance is present day Stoke).
If you can come up with better stuff go ahead, show me
As for the county names: Most where invented by Dovydas of Kovir some are pseudo Anglo Saxon translations: Sansmerci, Mortblanc, southern coast and last march.
Oh those ... I must've stumbled upon them somewhere. Maybe when I played around with this http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/ or that http://www.namesmade.com/fantasy-place-name-generator.php
Funny though that one of them seems to be an insult in Tagalog (language of the Phillippines) />. />
Alright now, names. I came up with some already, but first off I'd like to make a consideration regarding how to invent them.
As you said, some countries of The Witcher's world are clearly inspired by existing ones, using names derived from the languages spoken there. For example, Redania is Poland, Toussaint is France and so on. However, most of the times you can find a mixture of names coming from different languages, like Redania itself and practically every other.
So my suggestion is that we try to make up names with a certain real-world plausibility (for example, French-sounding names for Toussaint) as a basis, which will constitute the majority for that region; then we put in some Elven names (if needed, with inspiration from Irish/Welsh/Gaelic names), since those seem to be a bit everywhere, and maybe something Slavic here and there. This way, I think we'll be able to give every country a certain degree of distinction and uniqueness without labeling them too much.
Anyways, it's time we decide what is what, so let's try and define each one of them. Let's start with the easy ones, the Northern Kingdoms.
Kovir & Poviss: nothing really defining, so the original Baltic hypothesis could be alright. Actually the geography is remarkably similar, so I'd go with that.
Hengfors League and East March: if I had to find something, I'd say British. Malleore, Creyden, Caingorn... I don't know what else to think of, honestly.
Redania: easily Poland, if I really had to I'd give it a tiny bit of Germany.
Kaedwen: mostly Elven, for the rest I'd use Germany. I like that "Old Prussian" suggestion.
Temeria: not more French than early England, in my opinion. I'd go with generic Slavic with anything else that comes to mind, since it's a bit of a mess.
Mahakam: dwarves speak with a Scottish accent but many dwarven names are Italian and German. Sodden: Armeria and Carcano seem to be taken from Italian or Spanish. Are there many dwarves in Sodden? Brugge: "Bruges" is a city in Belgium, but everything else says just Polish.
Aedirn: "Edirne" or Adrianople is a city in Turkish Thrace, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean squat. The flag and some names seem to suggest Belgium but nothing sounds French, so I say Dutch. Aldersberg, Vengerberg, Eysenlaan at least sound so.
Lyria & Rivia: definitely Italy. Scala and Spalla are Italian words, Lyria and Rivia sound Italian, Rigoberta, Viviana and Nadia Esposito are Italian names. I wish Nilfgaard was so easy.
Cidaris: Dutch here too.
Verden: Slavic, can't find much more.
Skellige: Scandinavian and Welsh seem to be appropriate.
Alright, now for Nilfgaard. All I can say is that it the two major language roots seem to be Elven, so Irish/Welsh/Gaelic, and Dutch (Fitz-Oesterlen, Leeuvarden, van Lo, Voorhis, Coehoorn and so on). So instead of putting Elven and Slavic as a base, we could use Elven and Dutch, keeping Slavic for the northernmost provinces.
Cintra: The coat of arms resembles the Royal Arms of England; some names seem Scottish, but nothing really prominent. Angren: only Elven and Polish. Toussaint: French. Nazair: Anglo-Saxon seems best. Maybe something Nordic? Metinna: as you said, Neunreuth is German, Forgeham is English, so why not a mix? Ebbing: perhaps Nordic. We could use Danish, maybe. Geso: uhmmm... Spanish? Maecht: let's go with Frisian/Dutch. Etolia: alright, why not Greek. Gemmera: well, this is open for suggestion. Vicovaro: Elven. Ymlac/Rowan: since they're in Nilfgaard, Elven at its maximum.
Well, that's it. Let me know if something's not right or missing.
Good suggestions Fixer />/>
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That was my intention as well: Use existing cultures / languages from real world / fantasy texts to make the regions "unique" (e.g. playing in Kaedwen should feel different than playing in Angren).
Keeping it somwhat plausible in terms of linguistics would be nice, though. If Rivia is Italian and Toussaint French the space between (Angren/Dol Angra) could be Occitan, Arpitan or another Romance language.
But basically we will pick a "parent culture" for a region and work from there. As long as the place and given names are not to ones that are easily recognisable as being taken from the real world we will be fine. If someone invents cool new ones that would be even better.
Since I wrote my last post about this topic I came to realise that Kaedwen might be mostly inspired by Russia: Big country with lots of wood that stole land from another country while it was occupied in another war. I might Russianize Kaedwen at some point.
Nilfgaard can be interpreted as several things: 1) the Roman Empire at its height, 2) the (German) Holy Roman Empire and 3) Nazi Germany. The HRE because of its colors and Nazi Germany because of that Glevitzingen incident thing.
About Kovir/Hengfors league: I want to give those regions one culture. My preferred option would be Baltic (a combination of Lithuanian / Latvian / Livonian etc.).
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At the moment there is a lot of stuff that I *should* be doing for university. I need to get work done at my bachelor's project. I'm running kinda late with that. As of now I am waiting for the changes the next CK2 DLC will bring and for Yurtex do some work on the map.
There's a guy from the paradox forums who said he has time to help with the mod in June. And there's a guy from Poland who said he might help with event/casus belli coding.
I am hoping that if I manage to complete a basic version of the mod on the paradox forums some people might be willing to help out as well.
And of course, Dovydas of Kovir has spend a couple of evenings with me on skype discussing various Witcher related topics and inventing Nazairian provinces.
@gammalfarmor
If you want to help, you can pick some region and invent names for castles/cities/etc. for it. Ruling dynasties are needed as well.
At the moment there is a lot of stuff that I *should* be doing for university. I need to get work done at my bachelor's project. I'm running kinda late with that.
You basicly described my situation with uni lol.
About the maps, they are in this stage:
Height map is done, at least for the first version will do, still need to improve a lot.
Normal map - done, may do some changes.
Terrain map - working on now, trying to make it look not that tilled.
Map of provinces that I got from you is kind of wrong, be course of the terrain and hight maps. Some body need to fix it.
Yeah, the provinces map gotta be wrong. I stopped adding provinces to the south as this pretty much depends on where you put all the mountains. I'll do a rework once I see your version of the map.
Still, if I really HAD TO say something about the current map, I'd give Maecht those two southern regions of Geso that stretch to touch Metinna, and I'd split Maecht's southern branch between Ebbing, Etolia and Gemmera. Otherwise, it looks like it's all and done.
