OpenGeofiction
Hi guys,
proud of having Blöndel as the featured map in the wiki, I have gained new motivation to continue mapping as well as writing about it. I know that some see the wiki as a problematic rival for mapping itself, but for me, writing the wiki supports the mapping in many ways. I think map features become more alive and have more depth when they are explained.
This new article may seem like overwikification: Why write details about mythology? But consider the following:
- It explains the existence of several museums, like Gamaliel Bortotan Museum of Art and Mythological Museum of Blöndel.
- It explains the significance of the capital Blöndel, its river and the surrounding hills to the people of Bloregia
- It explains several names, like street names in the area of Shefull
- It casts light upon details like This stone of the Building of the Marqurd Guild (can you find it in the map?)
- Most importantly, it gives is a frame of reference for the mapping that I want to share in case anyone is interested. If not, it is still important for me as a mapper.
The Bloregian legends have developed during many years. One of them I have written into a mini-novel in Finnish. As the legends reflect many timeless questions of mankind, feel free to take influences into your stories.
Yet, focus on mapping, where all this comes to life!
Discussion
Comment from Black Baron on 15 January 2019 at 16:58
I’m totally sure that not only mythos but also other cultural aspects such as territorial conflicts between different civilizations are a key point of the mapping. I’ve always followed this way when mapping Castilea Archantea and that helps me to keep working and fine detailing my maps. Thank you for share your work!
Comment from Alessa on 15 January 2019 at 17:18
Excellent job, LemonKing. I love how you’re tying these things in. Thank you for sharing. Perhaps you might wish, in the wiki article, to include map links to key places or objects that have the strong mythological connection. That would really tie the two parts of the site together. Nice stuff!
Comment from zhenkang on 15 January 2019 at 22:17
Well, the main aim of the wiki in the first place is to actually support what is already mapped. I quite like the details in the city so far, and I also like the following articles you have created.
I have not thought much of Antigoan mythology, but I rather use Antigo’s history to help my mapping and vice versa. Some streets in Gut were named after those who died in the Battle of Gut during the war, and I think I may do the same for several streets in Kontroga.
Comment from Ramasham on 16 January 2019 at 00:00
I enjoyed the article as well. Whether backstory like this shows up in the wiki or is conveyed through the map itself, I feel like it’s a key (and often overlooked) element of verisimilitude. In believable places, certain dates, religious or mythological figures, national heroes, and so forth will show up over and over again, consistently, in streets, towns, important buildings and monuments. And when I explore a well-mapped corner of the world and find those places and names and dates, I want to find out the backstory.
I will echo an earlier comment: liberally sprinkle your wiki article with links to map locations and objects in the map. I think the objective of a good wiki article is for the reader to spend as little time in the article as possible but instead get drawn over and over into exploring the map and finding all the little treasures you have hidden away. You did a great job of this in your note with the stone, for example.
Another thing to try is to get around the wiki by using the map to tell the story. I’ll give a tiny example. I have a town that hopefully feels like a 19th century planned community laid out by a very rich, civic minded tycoon. This tycoon set up many parks, squares, monumental artworks, and statues, each with an inscription explaining the significance of the date or person it is depicting.
Anyone interested enough to query features around town will learn quite a bit about Castine’s first two prime ministers, its first war hero, the decisive battle in its independence war, two key dates every schoolchild knows, and will even see a picture of Ermentrude, the patron saint of Castine. It’s like a wiki article but in the map, the drawback being that nobody might ever notice it.
The general location of all that stuff is https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/12.4510/1.7109
Comment from LemonKing on 17 January 2019 at 14:52
Thanks a lot for all comments! More links will be added to the wiki as I map more details.
@Ramasham, I like the idea of telling the story through mapping. I try to do it myself to some small extent by adding informative English names to some map elements. The problem that arises is that the mapping becomes a linguistic mixture of Bloregian and English, I haven’t quite figured out what to do with that. I wish there was some nice way to add meta-information to the map that becomes visible when you click to open it. – The picture in Independence Gardens is very nice!