Maps

History
Map making was not just invented as a profession in Arusian times but invented as a concept. While paintings of towns exist as aids to navigation none solely or even primarily so. But under Aruseus map making became a government role and every inch of the middle mountains, leon, illia and even the far flung land that would come to be Narlwage were mapped in immaculate detail.

After the death of Aruseus, however, map making fell into a period of long and sharp decline. It turned from something done at the scale of a war to a cottage industry of one man bands.

Maps became stuck between newer but less accurate ones and copies and originals of Arusian era pieces (originals being preferred due to the loss of reliable drawing equipment and skills to accurately draw copies). Copies were frequently updated with new information but as many things thought 'fixed' had moved in the intervening hundreds of years they were between hard and impossible to update.

The emergence of woodblock print did allow the introduction of mas produced maps but because of the limitations of woodblock at the time these were less desirable then even copies. A weird situation developed where it was far easier to get a map in a far-flung town than find said town on the map.

The emergence of woodblock print did allow the introduction of mas produced maps but because of the limitations of woodblock at the time these were less desirable then even copies. A weird situation developed where it was far easier to get a map in a far-flung town than find said town on the map (though the main issue was with locations not existence).

Map Making in Achthal
After the creation of Achthal their was a significant interest in ensuring accurate data was in existence for all of Achthal. The first project was actually a religious one as part of a project to make The Book of Order as part of a counter balance to The Works of Necromancery but before long there was a project sponsored by the guilds of Scroy-Noroy which then lead to one sponsored by the guilds of Pleitsdorf (especially the wizards guild).

The Official Standard (OS) Map
Composed by the Achthalian government

The Pleitsdorf Guild Map
The Pleitsdorf Guild Map and significantly more expensive Pleitsdorf Magic Map are, without a doubt, the most interesting. The Guild Map is widely avalible as a woodblock atlas at a price of a two crowns, pittance compared with the Riesedorf and even OS Maps. Speculation holds that, for unknown reasons, the wizards guild publishes it at a loss, speculation only increased by the map's long history of inaccuracies, oddities and anomalies.

The original, 510 PA, edition had seemingly random road sizes and had inaccurate contour lines of a few mountains along with misplaced rapids and the movement of the Scroy border a few yards west of its actual position at one point. While this seems like something that is unnecessary to note, it placed a set of border fortifications on the Awegonian side and lead to the suing of the Pleitsdorf guild. While the lawsuit was mysteriously retracted a few days after being announced, the Scroy government paid for a reprint.

This one had perfectly accurate borders and had a key to allow people to identify the size of roads but some were at the wrong angle. The nonexistent rapids remained with a note that they were caused by 'unnatural water disturbances' but a few other hazards were removed as they had been called inaccurate. This edition remained in print for just over 44 years before it was revised after a series of accidents on hazards which had been removed.

This time all the removed hazards were reinstated with a we told you so note. The inaccuracies in roads were also removed and mountain heights corrected. However a number of forests sprung up in strange locations. Additionally studies showed that the map would often focus travellers on certain points and there were some places that it would almost never take them but after extensive research nobody could figure out why.

The map went through several more iterations and the errors and conspiracy theories around them became something of a joke.

The General Scientific Map
The GSM (General Scientific Map) was the brain child of one Casiar De Laratorev a naturalist of mixed decent and no particular home who formulated it after his visit to Orion and Leits universities. He convinced both parties to work upon a shared map making system by sending each other free data. The universities would then make their own maps for sale from said data.

While the standard splintered after a dispute between Orion and Pleits over deliberately inaccurate data in 763, scholars from Illia, The North and lesser Achthalian universities still provide data to both on the premise of good faith. Universities also make their own maps and it is the GSM local to the region rather than that of Pleits or Orion that is seen as the most accurate.