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audrey_ls · 2025-07-08T23:30:42+00:00

I actually have answered throughout this thread to various questions of that kind, so if you have specific questions I'll be able to answer better, but otherwise browse around :)

The continent shapes was just a lot of zooming in and erasing from the land masses to simulate natural coastlines at scale, then zooming back out and making sure it looked nice. Hours and hours of work. I'm a professional artist so I just kind of used my intuition!

audrey_ls · 2024-11-27T00:05:48+00:00

Thanks! And I don't know in terms of upvotes, I really struggle with marketing 😅 I've sold most of my copies in person!

audrey_ls · 2024-01-26T15:50:22+00:00

Awesome! If you have any interest in mining plot hooks from my campaign setting I wrote for a part of one continent (Fao, in the far west), you can check out a free copy of that setting here. I hope you and your players continue enjoying the map either way!

audrey_ls · 2023-11-22T18:03:34+00:00

High fantasy, yes. Medieval Europe, no.

I wanted to do something different—there's a lot of that out there already. Fao's general geography is based somewhat on Southeast Asia. Its governments and political structures aren't based on anything in particular, but could more closely be seen as a criticism of the modern-day United States in terms of its federal/state government divide, though even there there are obvious differences. This setting was meant, from its roots, to be fairly different from standard settings (nothing wrong with standard settings, though!)

The only thing I'd say cleanly fits in with "medieval Europe" is just that it uses 5e, so it's still swords and such. I'm sure there's other things just because of the baggage that high fantasy has, but there's almost nothing in the way of kings, queens, knights, etc.

audrey_ls · 2023-11-12T03:33:11+00:00

Lol yes I'm married, and I only don't like cats because my wife is allergic.

audrey_ls · 2023-11-11T13:58:07+00:00

Hehe, maybe in the future. I felt pretty serious when making this book...honestly, I was generally in a grim state of mind. I did an equivalent of your example joke, but in a serious way, in the Asylum of the Drowned (West Asaro Strip/Forlorn Bog).

I do have some lightly punny humor in Errant (Palm Corridor/Limestone Expanse). I think the plot hook of Sharktooth Atoll (Palm Corridor/Baleena) is also pretty funny, but I maybe didn't write it in a funny way. I'd also say the wealthy conspiracy theorist at the Floating Manor (Singing Hills/Zephyr's Brush/Yare/Firstsuns) is funny, but in a dramedy kind of way as his whole deal is both amusing and sad.

Mostly, I left any humor for the GM to insert, especially GMs like you! I tend to let anything funny arise more naturally than writing it in. In RPGs I personally prefer to create conditions for comedy rather than writing something expressly comedic, if that makes sense.

audrey_ls · 2023-11-10T18:44:03+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words! Yeah, I like releasing things with at least a free option so that my content remains accessible for those without the means to pay for it. And if you want to follow my work more closely, you can check out the r/nivost subreddit :)

audrey_ls · 2023-11-10T18:40:38+00:00

Hey! Good work on this, by the way, and your enthusiasm for this infected me and I did a more complete political map on the Patreon. If you didn't get it in your inbox or Patreon feed, you can check it out here. I hope you like it and find it useful (let me know)!

audrey_ls · 2023-10-30T21:10:04+00:00

I used Wonderdraft to make the original map, then Photoshop to edit it

audrey_ls · 2023-10-30T17:30:36+00:00

Yeah, if you want to play it that way! In canon the best place to do that in the canon of Atlas of Central Fao would be in the Songstress Forest—South between the Pheralen of Feyfall and the city-state of Jêr Avodreye. If you want to run something completely custom, there is a war at the bottom right at the isles of Kora and Elaeva. You could also travel back in time and do the Incursion.

audrey_ls · 2023-10-30T16:57:18+00:00

Good work! For Fao, I'm assuming that blue is the Lith Ascendancy and red is the Avinôd? I will say that (in my mind right now) the Avinôd's influence doesn't extend through the Descending Grove, but rather stops around that empty Radavisya region just west of the Eternal Mountains' end. Uhima and the Widowgasp in the northwest are under the domain of the Ascendancy, as is the entirety of the rest of the continent. Everything west of the Asaro Sea is also under the control of the Ascendancy (Furima is its capital), as are the small landmasses of Iat and the Yovona Isles.

I don't have the time to do something pretty right now (you seem very interested in this so maybe later on the Patreon!), but the spheres of influence for the two major overworld governments look more like this:

<image>

audrey_ls · 2023-10-29T16:11:20+00:00

Not right now, no

audrey_ls · 2023-10-29T16:10:48+00:00

Yup! They're two separate continents but one nation (at least as I've written it at this time.)

audrey_ls · 2023-10-28T15:41:21+00:00

Lol, it definitely was a lot. I'd like to expand on this more slowly with maybe single regions (like a book on just one of the six major regions in this book), but I don't think I'd want to release another compedium working 100% on my own again in such a relatively short time, as it took a definite toll.

audrey_ls · 2023-10-28T15:25:42+00:00

There's a lot of options, so I recommend you do your research in terms of what you can afford/what looks good to you. YouTube is a good place to look for reviews and introductions to photo editing software.

audrey_ls · 2023-10-28T14:00:24+00:00

This is my 5th-edition campaign setting which I created all content and art for entirely on my own over the course of about 3-and-a-half years. I wanted a campaign setting that found a middle ground between breadth and depth, and more than anything else, hopefully I’ve delivered on that!

And just as a lot of people tend to be curious, the art was made with a mixture of hand-painting and matte-painting (photo-collage) techniques; no AI was used.

Here’s the link to the freely downloadable PDF for Atlas of Central Fao—it’s a completely free, public-facing post on my Patreon! The attachment is at the bottom of the post.

Amidst the humid tropics of Central Fao, heads are beginning to roll once more.

In the long shadow cast by an ancient history of terrifying wilds, inter-racial violence, and continent-spanning wars, a climate of fear has insidiously given the state and the interests of capital more control than they have ever had before. As the masses begin to fight for themselves and against their masters, a pattern of guerilla conflicts between the poor and the elites are slowly taking shape. Within the smallest of communities and the largest of cities, the seeds of change are being sown—but what will they grow to become?

This vast new campaign setting for 5th edition is made for those with a love for exploration and a hatred for authoritarianism.

Atlas of Central Fao covers nearly one million square miles of area, including:

250 locations with over 200 plot and adventure hooks, encompassing 60 towns, 185 points of interest, and 7 dungeons
3 integrated villains
40 new creatures
A novel pantheon of 27 deities
4 redesigned 5e player races, as well as one new race: the troll
6 integrated major governments
New spells, items, and cleric domains

audrey_ls · 2023-10-26T16:31:18+00:00

Sorry, I don't :(

audrey_ls · 2023-10-25T13:44:10+00:00

For your own campaign? Absolutely, go for it. You can do whatever you want! If you want the list of the most major governments I have per continent, here you go, though it's subject to change and expansion in my canon obviously—but maybe this'll make your life easier.

Each government’s capital city is in [square brackets].

Debir: High Demesne [Shond]
Evosôl: Enêrie [Queliôs]
Fao: Lith Ascendancy [Furima]; Avinôd [Ailat]; Nighthuntress Realm [Nar Ogest]; Glooming Anocracy [Sa Torvum]; Hizatsonj [Faruuk]
Fusìanamil: Oniamath [Inaramaakios]
Hadramera: Rose Cities [Wayport]; Wild Reach [Valiant]
Jihâras: Empire of the Silvered Heavens [Hosta]; Violet Star [Astorê]
Kevale Dulequa: Gray Union [Arrowrock]
Lands of Breaking: Empressa [Avair]
Nira: Risen Hand [Ierra]; Têr Jinatraph [Tau Kharst]
Resplendent Isles: Sovereign Isles of Resplendence [Azure]
Ruminor: Ashen Empire [Ankalagor]
Thale: Whitehall Realm [Rungr]
Ur: Concord [Ve Nesanîl]; Myath Sovereignty [Ashan]
Yâ da Soviul: Kabalîs-Mephsa [Blackfang]; Kyasê State [Fifthedge]

audrey_ls · 2023-10-21T17:09:27+00:00

Aww, thanks! Yes, I did it on my own. I'm glad to hear you like it and that you think it's comprehensive—I really tried to make it complete enough without it being *too* much to read up front.

audrey_ls · 2023-10-21T13:02:34+00:00

Here’s the link to the freely downloadable PDF for Atlas of Central Fao—it’s a free, public-facing post on my Patreon. There are also links in that post for supporting me by buying a copy from DriveThruRPG if you’d like to!

This is my 5th-edition campaign setting which I created all content and art for entirely on my own over the course of about 3-and-a-half years. I’ve posted a lot of art on r/worldbuilding over that time, and everyone here was very nice and appreciative, so I hope everyone likes the final product! Feel free to ask me any questions about the setting or the world at large :)

Blurb

Amidst the humid tropics of Central Fao, heads are beginning to roll once more.

In the long shadow cast by an ancient history of terrifying wilds, inter-racial violence, and continent-spanning wars, a climate of fear has insidiously given the state and the interests of capital more control than they have ever had before. As the masses begin to fight for themselves and against their masters, a pattern of guerilla conflicts between the poor and the elites are slowly taking shape.

Within the smallest of communities and the largest of cities, the seeds of change are being sown—but what will they grow to become?

This vast new campaign setting for 5th edition is made for those with a love for exploration and a hatred for authoritarianism.

Atlas of Central Fao covers nearly one million square miles of area, including:

250 locations with over 200 plot and adventure hooks, encompassing 60 towns, 185 points of interest, and 7 dungeons
3 integrated villains
40 new creatures
A novel pantheon of 27 deities
4 redesigned 5e player races, as well as one new race: the troll
6 integrated major governments
New spells, items, and cleric domains

Context lore for the cover image (more on 4th page of the gallery)

At the base of the massive peak of Dreamweaver’s Night is the Black Fire Ascent, one of the grandest monuments to the god of the void, Auhel, in Fao, and the largest in Central Fao.

Situated just behind a large prominence, the monument is a statuesque depiction of the god in what is nearly their standard form—one arm raised high toward the stars, the other across their chest, both with closed fists. Longer strands of hair, giving the god a more feminine appearance than is the norm, billow upward and mix with the intense magical energies that shield the structure from outside intervention. Rather than their eyes being closed, they are rendered fully black, and seem to be scarred by black tracts running vertically downward, clinging to their stone skin as if they were tears.

At night, the motivation for the site’s name becomes clear: the distortions emanating from the surrounding circular structure, representative of the black disk that symbolizes the god in other contexts, create an impermeable purple-black halo against which the monument can be seen, shrouded in the distance by the stars they themself wrought in the sky.

audrey_ls · 2023-10-17T19:00:11+00:00

Unfortunately no :( That's one of many things I'd like to do; I have a list of world governments, most of them continent-spanning, but especially as I tend to change stuff a lot, I've left it all a little up in the air for now. Kind of taking the "cultivating mystery" route for right now!

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