This faction map for all of my armies might need some changes...

[Duskshroom Git]

I find it really annoying that the mortal realms innately act like the Eye of Terror in 40k, where nothing is stable, the lands shift constantly depending on the magic of the area you better hope your crops don't turn into burning fire elemental plants or the trees don't turn into living lead poisoning. I understand the center of the realms to be more stable, it seems like if I want a "normal" domain, I have to pick the metaphysical center of a realm (because it wasn't confusing enough the center has to be not really a center?). These centers are likely heavily contested, which is why it makes sense for my 4 separate projects (with room for more) to be aligned with with each other because a center region would be held down better that way. I'm not yet an AoS lore expert, what do you think?

 

The original idea was its a border between Ghur and Chemosh, where a river loops in which is believed to be part of a living terrain feature in Ghur leeching mineral sustenance out from Chemosh. But these guys are expected to stick with each other for hundreds of years, through present day age of sigmar. Maybe one day I'll change the geopolitical structure and some of these will become enemies, but I like imagining myself as the animating spirit behind all my ingame armies unless they're like Imperials and Chaos. That would be silly. I'm not a silly goose yo.

[Baron Klatz]

1 hour ago, Duskshroom Git said:

it seems like if I want a "normal" domain, I have to pick the metaphysical center of a realm (because it wasn't confusing enough the center has to be not really a center?). These centers are likely heavily contested, which is why it makes sense for my 4 separate projects (with room for more) to be aligned with with each other because a center region would be held down better that way. I'm not yet an AoS lore expert, what do you think?

Basically yeah, the mortal realms are expanding outwards in the void as pure creations of magic & cosmic debris(think mini Big Bangs) so the centers have had time to stabilize their magic and be safer places to settle while towards the expanding edges of free roaming crystallizing magic is where things get wild.

Example: 

Hysh innerlands: there’s not really a night time and there’s floating crystals everywhere but there’s normal plains, deserts and oceans civilizations can build around.

Hysh middlelands: the seas are starting to shimmer more and every rock and mountain look like symmetrical puzzle pieces but there’s still verdant grasslands and coastal cities living off glimmerfish. They can even ask the moons that phase in and out of reality to change the tides for them.

Hysh Edges: yeah no, tread with extreme caution. The sea is pure solar energy shining across the cosmos, thoughts are mingling with blinding light and in the distance you can see what looks like sketches of objects and even cities drifting into shifting reality.

 

An interesting note is the gods prefer setting up shop in the center of the realms and this is how travelers tell North vs South with a realm compass. They’re attuned to point to the gods so south is always towards the center with the gods & god-beasts of that realm gathering in mass and north is towards the edges.

Additional note that the innerlands aren’t the exact same for every realm. The Realm of Death/Shyish is backwards thanks to Nagash’s Necroquake so now the wild parts are in the center with a death magic black hole and Realm of Metal/Chamon is countless sub-realms(think a hundred bubbles within a big bubble) with the inner realms more stable than the outer sub-realms/bubble realities. So you got more shake-ups how you can build around them.

 

This bit though:

1 hour ago, Duskshroom Git said:

The original idea was its a border between Ghur and Chemosh, where a river loops in which is believed to be part of a living terrain feature in Ghur leeching mineral sustenance out from Chemosh

You can pull that off in three ways(assuming a Ghur continent is the main focus) off the top of my head.

1. The Ghur continent is alive as an actual slumbering parasite that once gorged itself on a Chamon God-beast and now rests back in Ghur with rivers of mercury and minerals seeping from it’s skin. Dangerous prospect to live there on a creature that may wake up or just draw other monsters towards a sleeping meat field of it’s soil covered flesh but a massive supply of metals in a realm lacking them is too tasty an opportunity for your settlers.

2. A chunk of Chamon was dislodged in either a battle of god-beasts, machinations of the gods or another experiment by Teclis or Grungni in combining two polar opposite realms and seeing the results. 
 

The Chamon chunk has sentience however as a pseudo-elemental and formed rushing rivers around itself as a moat defense against the alien environment and foreign amber stone deposits that’s it’s trying not to fuse with and slowly be consumed by the Ghur realm. The rivers and bountiful minerals are nothing but boons to your intrepid colonies who use them as resources and travel, though tread cautiously on not antagonizing the vast elemental lest they find mining villages turned into silver statues or fleets assailed by flying sword swarms.

3. A mixed sub-realm between the two like the Twilight realm Uhl-Gysh between the Light & Shadow realms. This could give you more options how you want to build with a new realm that combines both the aspects of Beasts & Metal.

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Uhl-Gysh
 

Wouldn’t have to be a vast sub-realm, you could make it something like the Orb Infernia that orbits the Realm of Fire with some key continents.

https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Orb_Infernia
 

All food for thought, very nifty region you have with cool faction ideas and I hope I gave some insight how you can continue growing it in the endless cosmic potential of the Mortal Realms.  

[Duskshroom Git]

Thanks for the response, I saw earlier but was on my phone. I appreciate the time to put into the post. I think option 3, a godbeast (do we even know how many there were?) getting into a brawl with a sentient Chemosh mass (theres just too many gods and godbeasts to decide who should be the one to enchant this thing, and by now whose to say the truth probably isn't completely lost to time), the two end up fatally wounding each other and as a result of its loss of power it drifts back into the center of Chemosh as a normal-ish sub-realm. Maybe the hedonites will get curious and dig something up in the desert and the story will change into something more vivid and colorful.

 

[Neverchosen]

I make my own maps I typically use online resources. There are lots of map makers for various game systems and they all have different levels of customization. For my own purposes I like to essentially make a Risk board so it is not too complicated.

Even though this is not the most customizable I actually like this one the most:
https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/

I typically choose 8-12 states to represent the realms and the Eight Points/Chaotic Realms or I come up with a state/nation for each army in my friend group and build a setting from there. This site auto generates the map which actually works really well for my purposes but might not be perfect for others. In terms of the realms I typically always imagine a nexus spot  or a place with a cluster of realm gates... but the reality is I am just coming up with a world of my own.

Here is a test map I made based around one of my own settings:

Edited July 1, 2022 by Neverchosen

[Baron Klatz]

On 6/30/2022 at 8:37 PM, Duskshroom Git said:

a godbeast (do we even know how many there were?)

Pretty much countless.

The Realms keep making new ones, God-beasts like the Lode-griffon were stated to come From Outside the Realms(which tracks with hints of other realms out there besides the main 8 bug ones), Sigmar has many of the more dangerous ones locked away guarding his Stormvaults and the Sons of Behemat are growing into new God-beasts.

So you can make it anything you want. The 12-headed Megalodon and lord of sharks in Ghur the Bonesplitterz swim after? The living avalanche of amber that engulfed Gorkamorka and got repelled by Sigmar? A God-beast that’s just eyes and tentacles in the aether above? Go wild!

On 6/30/2022 at 8:37 PM, Duskshroom Git said:

Maybe the hedonites will get curious and dig something up in the desert and the story will change into something more vivid and colorful.

Always a fun direction to take things, especially with the already colorful deserts of the Metal Realm being made of silver scales or gold specks instead of sand.

With how advanced Chamon was compared to Ghur(domed city sky-bridges, sentient automatons and mecha-beasts, etc). Could be used either to advance themselves into steampunk slaanesh to take over the savage regions or let it all lose and instead of the Metal realm fragment defending itself from Ghur the Slaaneshites corrupt it into a virus so it begins spreading turning wildlife into robots and giant bones into metallic obelisks they can hollow out into iron fortresses.
 

Hedonite leader might just enjoy a cleaner looking landscape so unleashed the Chamon fragment to terraform the continent, kinda like a Dr.Eggman vibe going on.

[SunStorm]

This is a great idea. 

I've got a rough idea in my own head of the part of Ghur my different forces would come from. Seeing you guys making maps, I should try it myself.