I’ve been wanting to do more maps for The Tripartitus for years now, but I’d always get bogged down in planning and unnecessary details. Well, I *finally* sat down and roughed out an outline for the continent of Osyden before zooming in and finishing off Rodan along the west. While the terminology is fairly loose, the nation of Rodan really only consists of the towns west of the Iron Hill – the rest is barren wasteland and is, for the most part, pretty empty. My original plan going into this was that there going be a lot of empty space relative to the actual meaningful locations, and I knew I wanted to fill this space with decorative illustrations a little more elaborate and overt than my usual maps...

First of all, I did ALL the lettering by hand (although I did use existing fonts as a guide) - it's more obvious when you zoom in, but I do still feel like it was worth it :) I also wanted a more elaborate compass rose, which ended up being combined into an elaborate banner featuring Rodan’s sigil and motto. I also wanted a big sea monster lurking in the ocean as an ode to the classic “Here be dragons” monsters of old maps. Fittingly enough, the depicted creature – called, varyingly, a sea panther, broadmouth, or qarin – is, according to Razielian lore, what remains of an ancient tyrannical race of dragons before being defeated and cast down to the ocean depths by Lura, the Moon. Included also is the ruins of the Red Midden, popularly believed to be haunted by the bloody god-king of the West, eternally lamenting the loss of his great kingdom in the war against the East. And finally, I included a little illustration of Luke on his way across the Bertan Wastes, shortly before his first encounter with Jayli – I’ve drawn this same concept a few times over, years ago, and it was nice to do an updated version of it.

... Aaaaanyway, I'm sure none of you reeeeeally care :V Enjoy! :D

20-30 hours Adobe Photoshop CS6.
The Tripartitus story & artwork © Jen Elliott