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Minrothad Guilds, 8 miles per hex

by Thorfinn Tait

Maps

Replica of poster map from GAZ9, 8 miles per hex by Thorf, August 2008

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Updated map of The Minrothad Guilds, 8 miles per hex by Thorf, June 2005 (Out of Date)

Comments
The map for this Gazetteer was woefully under-developed. It shows very few settlements, cursory shipping lanes, no trails, no rivers, and in fact nothing much at all other than the land itself. In contrast, the Gazetteer itself has extensive descriptions of the geography of the area. The Trail Maps also expanded upon Minrothad, though not necessarily in the same ways the Gazetteer text did.

Sources: GAZ9 The Minrothad Guilds (1988), TM1 The Western Countries (1989), TM2 The Eastern Countries (1989), PC3 The Sea People (1990), Rules Cyclopedia (1990).

Notes on Updated map (GAZ9)

• Gapton - labelled as Gaptown on GAZ9's map. However, two text references (Player's Booklet page 5, DM's Booklet page 6) have Gapton while the Gaptown spelling is nowhere to be found in GAZ9's text. TM1 later changed the name to Gapton, perhaps suggesting that Gaptown was an error. The Atlas is treating it as such, and uses the spelling Gapton.
• Gregus Ridge – the name of Alfeisle’s mountain range is given on page 49 of the DM’s guide.
• Hermian – this small village on Blackrock Island is mentioned on page 54 of the DM’s Guide. However, it has not been added to the map, since doing so would mean the loss of the heavy forest hex.
• Lithwillow River – this river is referenced on Player’s Guide page 4 and again on DM’s Guide page 45-46: “The Lithwillow drains down from Landfall Peak, into the caldera, then downhill again to the sea.” This atlas has the river marked according to this description.
• Minroth Harbour – the name of the harbour upon which Harbourtown is built is given on page 48 of the DM’s guide.
• Mountain Names – while none of the volcanoes were labelled on the map, many were mentioned in the text. The names given in the text do not match the names given later on TM2. (See TM2.) Mountain names include Landfall Peak, Immortal’s Home, Halfpeak, Mt. Olwin, Mt. Redtongue, Redtop and Mt. Thymas. The latter two are in fact the same volcano, on Fire Island, so that volcano has no less than three names.
• Open Isle – described in GAZ9 as “flat and treeless” (page 5), the map nevertheless depicts this island as hilled and mostly covered with forests!
• Quickhand River – Open Isle’s river is referred to on page 48 of the DM’s Guide. The version in this atlas is merely an educated guess as to the river’s course.
• Reedy River – page 54 of the DM’s Guide describes this river on Fire Island.
• Verdun - Alfeisle in the Minrothad Guilds has two settlements. The northern one is called Seahome, but the southern one is actually referred to by two variations of the same name: Verdun and Verdon. Verdun appears on all the official maps (GAZ9’s map, GAZ9’s trading map, Wrath of the Immortals’ 24 mile per hex map, TM2), but only has two references in GAZ9’s text, one of which is in the table of ports. Verdon appears as the label on only one map (the town map), but is the norm in GAZ9’s text, appearing no less than seventeen times.

Notes on Updated map (TM1)

• Coastal Waters – many Gazetteers didn’t show shallow and deep water. TM1 showed coastal waters for the first time for Karameikos, the Five Shires, Darokin and part of the Atruaghin Clans. It also redrew Minrothad’s coastal waters, which were rather simplistic in GAZ9’s map.
• Mountain names – many individual mountains not found in Gazetteer maps have been added throughout the world. However, in Minrothad the new mountain names were different from those provided in GAZ9’s text. (See GAZ9.) Halfpeak became Old Nenthead, Redtop/Mt. Thymas became Great Fire Mouth, Landfall Peak became Gold Needle, and Immortal’s Home became Mt. Minroth.

Notes on Updated map (TM2)

• Coastal Waters – many Gazetteers didn’t show shallow and deep water. TM2 showed coastal waters for the first time for Thyatis, Ylaruam, the Northern Reaches, part of Heldann and the western Isle of Dawn. It also redrew Minrothad’s coastal waters, which were rather simplistic in GAZ9’s map.

To Do List

1. Create replica map and original colours variant.
2. Expand updated map - I'm working on changing the format of all my maps to make them rectangular by including neighbouring countries.
3. Check GAZ9 and other relevant sources for geographic details and write notes on the updated map.
4. Create replica of Rules Cyclopedia maps and write notes.
5. Create replica of TM1 and TM2 and finish notes on this map.

References

1. Thorf's Secret Project: Stage One - the original Atlas of Mystara thread at the Wizards MMB. Post 67 presented the updated Minrothad map.
2. Verdun or Verdon? - discussion thread at the Wizards MMB.