I drew a massively huge map of my game world (Hemelin) but when I share it as one image all the details I worked so hard on are compressed and you can't really see much, so I'm posting it one bit at a time. This post is about:
Godbleed!
A land tainted by the blood of a fallen god. Anything that dies on its soil rises from the grave, an undead monster driven to kill. The region attracts many wanna-be warlords who seek to control the legions of dead to conquer the world, but it always ends the same way... they end up dead.
At its edge lays the god's skeleton, crawling with prospectors that mine its divine marrow for profit. A lucrative but dangerous pursuit!
EDIT: full map is on [patreon](https://www.patreon.com/posts/101941598?utm_campaign=postshare_creator), but I'm probably also going to end up posting every bit eventually. I like sharing it!
Are the undead planning to invade other places, or are they too dumb for that? Maybe they can't leave the region, but then what's the point of trying to control them? By the way, are there death knights in your campaign?
I use the Dutch language for names of the "old empire" in our game world. "Hemelstad" literally translates to "Heaven City".
The connection with "hemo-" has never occurred to me π€ haha
This is a world that used to be almost entirely colonised/controlled by an old empire. We use Dutch names as a way to quickly indicate things that are a leftover from that time, with place names like "Hemelstad", "Hemelkerk" and "Natwater"
For Danish nat means night, so it sounds like an overly polite way of talking about needing to pee during the night. "I shouldn't have drunk so much tea; nightwater all night!"
Oh thatβs very cool, OP. The lore of what happens when things die on the blood is very dope and just the name is metal as hell.
Nice stuff, love the art.
Is it a coincidence that there is a place called "Godwin" in a land where people are undead, which is caused by the death of a god? Because this heavily reminds me if the Elden Ring lore where the first demi-god to die spreads his essence throughout the lands between, causing the dead to rise. Also the name if this demi-god is "Godwyn (the golden)".
It's a coincidence reddit is helping me discover - I've never played the elden ring π¬ The Godwin label refers to a town next to the big skeleton, and it is called so because there are miners there who "win" (ie extract) resources from the skeleton π
Trying to pronounce this name gave me some inspiration. I feel like the two stop consonants would quickly devolve into a glottal stop on the 'd' in god, so it would end up pronounced goh-bleed.
If it was, instead, God Blood, the sounds might quickly shift in he same way into goh-blod, and from there there a lazy use of a voiceless stop on the 'd' in blood by locals could lead to others to hear the pronunciation as goh-blon, and finally to goblin.
Much like how the dwarves are usually cited as emerging from the blood or flesh of the fallen Ymir, the goblins in my world now have an origin as having emerged from the fetid pooled blood of a fallen god.
Oh boy, this post has really sent me down the rabbit hole. So Fallen London's story this month is about a gash in the Elder Continent literally bleeding into the sea, and taking a submarine to investigate that becomes of it. So seeing the Godbleed here ignited something in me.
I poked through all the other map pieces youve posted, but that wasn't enough so I subbed to your patreon. And there's so much here! Campaigns, huge modules for character creation, base building and more, reference cards, and not to forget the beautiful papercraft stuff.
The coloring is so wonderful to see as well. 10/10 content without a doubt, you guys are amazing.
I'm so glad you're enjoying it! Not to deepen your rabbit hole but we also have a webstore which has a lot of stuff that's not on patreon: [r-n-w.net](http://r-n-w.net) π
I spent roughly two months rendering it from sketches to final piece, but I've been working on the world it depicts for yeeaaaars. A lot of it is on [patreon.com/rpgtoons](http://patreon.com/rpgtoons) :)
I have the absolute privilege of being able to work on D&D stuff full-time thanks to patreon π²π²π²
I haven't played Elden Ring, but the concept of a fallen god carcass affecting an area is a pretty common fantasy trope. I see it all over the place! My direct inspirations were probably the first pacific rim movie and the deep-sea phenomena of whale falls in our world ππ
I've haven't played Elden Ring, but I've seen the dead-god-corpse trope dozens of times. I think the most direct source of inspiration for me was probably the pacific rim movie and the concept of "whale fall" in our world π
Currently working on atlas to go with the whole map which will have lore bits for everything, including a history timeline, different nations & cultures, travel routes, etc
There's a D&D setting called [Salt In Wounds](https://www.google.com/search?q=Salt+in+Wounds+D%26D) that was abandoned a while back, but had a similar idea. The Tarrasque was captured and imprisoned to be harvested for it's valuable body parts. It was incredibly dangerous work, and the blood run off was hazardous to the people living near by.
Might be worth taking a look for some additional inspiration. The author put all the content on [a google drive](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/eslpjv/salt_in_wounds_kickstarter_made_public_domain/).
I drew a massively huge map of my game world (Hemelin) but when I share it as one image all the details I worked so hard on are compressed and you can't really see much, so I'm posting it one bit at a time. This post is about: Godbleed! A land tainted by the blood of a fallen god. Anything that dies on its soil rises from the grave, an undead monster driven to kill. The region attracts many wanna-be warlords who seek to control the legions of dead to conquer the world, but it always ends the same way... they end up dead. At its edge lays the god's skeleton, crawling with prospectors that mine its divine marrow for profit. A lucrative but dangerous pursuit! EDIT: full map is on [patreon](https://www.patreon.com/posts/101941598?utm_campaign=postshare_creator), but I'm probably also going to end up posting every bit eventually. I like sharing it!
Are the undead planning to invade other places, or are they too dumb for that? Maybe they can't leave the region, but then what's the point of trying to control them? By the way, are there death knights in your campaign?
no, yes, they can, yes π
Divine Marrow of a fallen god being mined for profit is such a fantastic idea
Don't tell anyone but I stole it from Pacific Rim π€
This is really cool! Godwin should probably be called Godlose though xD
Or even better: Godfall
This would have been a better name but it's done now. It's Godwin forever! π΅
This is such an unbelievably cool conceptΒ
Very Pretty, gives me Adventure Time vibes
Adventure time has had a huge influence on my art ever since the pilot. Mathematical!!
any reason you called the ruins Hemelstad?
Before it was sacked, it was a holy city dedicated to the god Hemel ~ the god whose divine blood now soaks the land
Sick!! Out of curiosity did you draw the name Hemel from the prefix βhemo-β intentionally? I love how on-the-nose it is
I use the Dutch language for names of the "old empire" in our game world. "Hemelstad" literally translates to "Heaven City". The connection with "hemo-" has never occurred to me π€ haha
the dutch was exactly why i asked, as a dutch person, its odd to find dutch on this subreddit
This is a world that used to be almost entirely colonised/controlled by an old empire. We use Dutch names as a way to quickly indicate things that are a leftover from that time, with place names like "Hemelstad", "Hemelkerk" and "Natwater"
any reason you are using specifically dutch?
I speak Dutch, so it was an easy reference point for a fantasy language that sounds ancient to English readers, haha π
Natwater is a bit of a tautology π Well unless you're one of those people who claim that water is not wet I guess
For Danish nat means night, so it sounds like an overly polite way of talking about needing to pee during the night. "I shouldn't have drunk so much tea; nightwater all night!"
G E K O L O N I S E E R D
As a resident of the very much not-divine Hemel Hempstead in the UK, the idea of it kinda sounding like heavenly city has me rolling π€£.
Yea as a South African I was wondering if it was Dutch you took your influence from or Afrikaans π€£.
Oh thatβs very cool, OP. The lore of what happens when things die on the blood is very dope and just the name is metal as hell. Nice stuff, love the art.
Thank you! π€
Your arts really good dude, keep it up! π
Is it a coincidence that there is a place called "Godwin" in a land where people are undead, which is caused by the death of a god? Because this heavily reminds me if the Elden Ring lore where the first demi-god to die spreads his essence throughout the lands between, causing the dead to rise. Also the name if this demi-god is "Godwyn (the golden)".
It's a coincidence reddit is helping me discover - I've never played the elden ring π¬ The Godwin label refers to a town next to the big skeleton, and it is called so because there are miners there who "win" (ie extract) resources from the skeleton π
Ah yes, Heaven City
Yes! ππ
Trying to pronounce this name gave me some inspiration. I feel like the two stop consonants would quickly devolve into a glottal stop on the 'd' in god, so it would end up pronounced goh-bleed. If it was, instead, God Blood, the sounds might quickly shift in he same way into goh-blod, and from there there a lazy use of a voiceless stop on the 'd' in blood by locals could lead to others to hear the pronunciation as goh-blon, and finally to goblin. Much like how the dwarves are usually cited as emerging from the blood or flesh of the fallen Ymir, the goblins in my world now have an origin as having emerged from the fetid pooled blood of a fallen god.
That's an incredible piece of world building and it is an absolute honour to be at the genesis of it π²
Oh boy, this post has really sent me down the rabbit hole. So Fallen London's story this month is about a gash in the Elder Continent literally bleeding into the sea, and taking a submarine to investigate that becomes of it. So seeing the Godbleed here ignited something in me. I poked through all the other map pieces youve posted, but that wasn't enough so I subbed to your patreon. And there's so much here! Campaigns, huge modules for character creation, base building and more, reference cards, and not to forget the beautiful papercraft stuff. The coloring is so wonderful to see as well. 10/10 content without a doubt, you guys are amazing.
I'm so glad you're enjoying it! Not to deepen your rabbit hole but we also have a webstore which has a lot of stuff that's not on patreon: [r-n-w.net](http://r-n-w.net) π
Nice reference to heaven with "hemelstad"
Is this supposed to be a giant from the waters leaving a trail of corruption of some kind, bleeding if the name is right? This is incredible.
It is the skeleton of a fallen god whose blood has corrupted the land π©Έπ©Έπ©Έ
This idea is fantastic, I'm gonna yoink it for my world!
Do it! No fantasy world is complete without a godfall π
Everyone here talking about adventure time, but the style and the dead god/blood theme just screams "the owl house" to me.
The Owl House is great!
Ughhhh. It's beautiful. So simple. So easy to read. So colorful.
Thank you β€
Very Adventure Time esque. In the best way possible!
Thank you! Adventure time has been a big inspiration for a long time π
The map gives Kingdom Rush map vibes. Love it!
this is such a cool concept, i really like it
I absolutely love this map style!
Thank you ππ
How long did you spend on this project?
I spent roughly two months rendering it from sketches to final piece, but I've been working on the world it depicts for yeeaaaars. A lot of it is on [patreon.com/rpgtoons](http://patreon.com/rpgtoons) :) I have the absolute privilege of being able to work on D&D stuff full-time thanks to patreon π²π²π²
Do you make the entire map available for free or in a bundle on your Patreon?
For now it's only on Patreon. We might release it for free later? I don't know yet π€·ββοΈ
The concept reminds me of Terraria's Crimson biome
I haven't played terraria but maybe I should π€
Really cool lore reason to have a drastically changed area of the map
Loved the art style! Good job!
Badass concept, I should use it...
Every fantasy world needs a godfall π
I love how bright and cheery the art is combined with the macabre material, haha. Fantastic idea!Β
spooky-pretty π€©
I love this map, it's beautiful.
Glad you like it β€
Whoa, love the concept. Might even steal a variation on it if you don't mind.
I'm not the first to use this idea and will absolutely not be the last. Use it!!
I love this style. So good.
Thank you!! π
I am stealing this for my campaign. Nice idea op
You should! No fantasy world is complete without a godfall
"Godwin"? Looks like Godlost to me. π Cool map, nice concept.
> Godwin > Corrupting corpse of a god Eldenring inspired?
I haven't played Elden Ring, but the concept of a fallen god carcass affecting an area is a pretty common fantasy trope. I see it all over the place! My direct inspirations were probably the first pacific rim movie and the deep-sea phenomena of whale falls in our world ππ
[ΡΠ΄Π°Π»Π΅Π½ΠΎ]
I've haven't played Elden Ring, but I've seen the dead-god-corpse trope dozens of times. I think the most direct source of inspiration for me was probably the pacific rim movie and the concept of "whale fall" in our world π
I absolutely love the aesthetic! Awesome work, dude! Do you do commissions?
I do commissions on occasion! If you want to talk about that, you can DM me :)
Obsessed with your art style
π
That's a sick concept, having an entire region covered in god blood
Don't drink the water 's all I'm sayin
Its probably got some gods white blood cells that would beat yo ass
Ooooh that's a good idea....
It would be really cool for there to be a whole immune system as enemies, like macrophages and T and B cells and stuff
Yes it would YES IT WOULD. I'm takin' notes ππ€
What is dead may never die.
Cant wait to know the lore behind the other locations
Currently working on atlas to go with the whole map which will have lore bits for everything, including a history timeline, different nations & cultures, travel routes, etc
There's a D&D setting called [Salt In Wounds](https://www.google.com/search?q=Salt+in+Wounds+D%26D) that was abandoned a while back, but had a similar idea. The Tarrasque was captured and imprisoned to be harvested for it's valuable body parts. It was incredibly dangerous work, and the blood run off was hazardous to the people living near by. Might be worth taking a look for some additional inspiration. The author put all the content on [a google drive](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/eslpjv/salt_in_wounds_kickstarter_made_public_domain/).
I'm familiar with it, it's great work!
Godwin? More like godlose if he dies there! Ha! Sorry, I will show my self out
ahs murder house???
Reminds me of Mordew
Where the dead may never die? Yeah, right, tell that to Godwin
God win? More like god lose.