Table of Correspondences Kingdom, Region, or Ethnic GroupĪ fallen kingdom corresponding to the Roman Empire. The probable intended correspondences are listed below notice that the correspondences are sometimes very loose, and are portrayed by ahistorical stereotypes. He imagines the Picts to occupy a large area to the northwest. Khitai is his China, far to the East, deriving from an ancient name Corinthia is his name for a Greek-like civilization, a name slapped together from the name of the city of Corinth and a reminiscence of the Middle Ages province of Carinthia.
In this general setting, Howard placed imaginary kingdoms to which he gave names from a varied series of sources. There are also a few islands, reminiscent of the Azores, but his stories are not about naval tactics. Meanwhile, the west coast of Africa on his map lies beneath the sea. Not only are his Baltic Sea and English Channel dry, but most of the North Sea and a vast region to the west, easily including Ireland, are too. Although his Black Sea is also dry, his Caspian Sea, which he renames the Vilayet Sea, extends northward to reach the Arctic Ocean, so as to provide a barrier to encapsulate the settings of his stories. The Nile, which he re-named the River Styx, takes a westward turn at right angles just beyond the Nile Delta, plowing through the mountains so as to be able to reach the Straits of Gibraltar. On a map Howard drew detailing it, his vision of the Mediterranean Sea is also dry. And both the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea were once fresh-water lakes, the former (renamed the Ancylus Sea, after a fresh-water clam) covering much of the eastern half of what is now Sweden. Once there was a land-bridge across the English Channel between England and the Low Countries (but not across the Irish Sea) such that the Thames once flowed into a northern extension of the Rhine. The Mediterranean Sea formerly dried out intermittently, alternating with floods over the Straits of Gibraltar. They consider that during the Ice Age, Europe was quite different. Its setting is Europe and North Africa – with some curious geological changes that were thought up prior to the ascendancy of the geologic theory of plate tectonics, though somewhat similar to what geologists theorize. Howard's Hyborian Age, described in detail in his essay " The Hyborian Age", is a mythical era before any civilization known to anthropologists.
This was a mythical place far to the north that wasn't cold and where people never age. The name "Hyborian" is a contraction of the Greek concept of the land of " Hyperborea", literally "Super-North-Land". Howard devised the Hyborian Age to fit in with his previous and less well-known tales of Kull, which were set at the time of Atlantis. According to Howard himself (in " The Phoenix on the Sword"): ".between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas." The Conan stories take place on Earth, but in the mythical (created by Howard) Hyborian Age, between the time of the sinking of Atlantis and the rise of known ancient civilizations. This could take a bit of tweaking depending on the size of your map.For Robert E.
You can increase or decrease this number by small amounts depending on how white you want the mountains to be. (That is negative 5) This deepens the colors a little.įor the snowy mountains, use the same bitmap but use a separate sheet.Įdge Fade Inner and Spacial Matrix Process: Settings will be the same as above.Īdjust Hue/Saturation: Change the Saturation to 40. There is no need to change any settings.Īdjust Hue/Saturation Change the saturation to -5. Spacial Matrix Process: Load the Emboss settings. Don't be afraid to play with this number until you get the look you want. For a map that is 1000 x 800 set the fill style scale to 150 x 150.ĭraw your mountain ranges on their own sheet using a straight or fractal poly and add the following effects to that sheet:Įdge Fade Inner: Set the edge width somewhere between 25 - 45 depending on how big your map is. Here it is, along with the settings needed to achieve this look.Īdd the png fill to your map in the standard fashion.
I've got the mountain bitmap figured a bit better.