Map of the Fortnight: Main thread
- Thread starter Krall
- Start date
Krall
Banned
There seems to be more people participating in MotF lately - I'm not sure whether that's random chance or whether there's some cause, but after worrying about whether this contest is "dying" for a long time I'm happy to see the reversal of that trend! 
In other news, I finished the roundel for MotF 80!
Edit: Made a mistake on the roundel - it used to say "LXXIX" instead of "LXXX".
In other news, I finished the roundel for MotF 80!
Edit: Made a mistake on the roundel - it used to say "LXXIX" instead of "LXXX".
Last edited:
Alex Richards
Donor
Stitching, actually.
Ah, I'd wondered why there was a box of nationalism in the background
Krall
Banned
Ah, I'd wondered why there was a box of nationalism in the background
That's a Nationalism™ Sewing Machine - sewing diverse countries into cohesive nationstates since 1789!
Krall
Banned
No - the contest round officially ends midnight on Saturday (that's the midnight at the *end* of Saturday, not the midnight at the *start* of Saturday), but the entry period remains open until I post the voting thread on the following Sunday.
Note that the MotF contest works on GMT, because I live in Britain, so if I post the voting thread on Sunday evening then there are about 48 hours left in the current round.
Krall
Banned
I think "This Land is Ours" and "Humanity's Finest Hour" are roughly equal in popularity at the moment so, barring any last minute change in support, I shall go with "This Land is Ours" since it's the older challenge.
I'll be posting the winner and Honourable Mention announcements for MotF 79 in a couple of hours, and then posting the new threads a few hours after that. So if you still want to enter, then you'd better do it soon!
I also need to choose what challenge we're going to use for the first MotM contest. I'll be choosing the challenge rather than taking the most popular one, but I'm still open to suggestions and arguments in favour/against different challenges. I'd rather not choose one of my own suggestions, but I do want to choose a quite general one so we can get a large number and variety of entries. Maybe we could rerun an old challenge that hasn't been rerun yet?
I'll be posting the winner and Honourable Mention announcements for MotF 79 in a couple of hours, and then posting the new threads a few hours after that. So if you still want to enter, then you'd better do it soon!
I also need to choose what challenge we're going to use for the first MotM contest. I'll be choosing the challenge rather than taking the most popular one, but I'm still open to suggestions and arguments in favour/against different challenges. I'd rather not choose one of my own suggestions, but I do want to choose a quite general one so we can get a large number and variety of entries. Maybe we could rerun an old challenge that hasn't been rerun yet?
Krall
Banned
The voting for MotF 79 is over!
Zuvarq's entry shows a world where the Caliphs of Cordoba convert to Christianity. The prestige associated with their culture causes the native Christian kings to adopt it, even adopting the title of "Caliph" for themselves. After hundreds of years of on-and-off crusades in the Levant; struggles against a heretical, Islam-influenced form of Christianity called "Cidism"; and wars against a confederation of Central Asian, horse-riding nomads called the Red Horde the Caliphs of Andalusia find themselves dominating most of Europe. Having wrestled France and what remains of non-Scandinavian Britain away from their previous rulers through lucky marriages and occasional wars, the Caliphs use their strength to protect and incorporate the ravaged lands of the Byzantine Empire and the Papacy. The Andalusians' neo-Roman Empire stretches from Anatolia to Iberia - even the Pope is lower than the great Caliphs - and the Andalusian Caliphate is truly the greatest empire under the sun.
This imaginative, original backstory is part of what makes Zuvarq's entry great. The map itself is a topographical view of Europe, with dotted lines and provincial abbreviations overlaid to show the extent and structure of the Andalusian Caliphate. The style strikes a good balance between detail and clarity, earning Zuvarq this Honoured Victory. Well done!
Awarded for High Popular Support
(The font I use for these awards apparently doesn't include an underscore, so apologies for that omission).
In B_Munro's entry the Roman Empire is killed in the cradle by an alliance of Carthage and Persia. Over two millenia later Persia has developed the scientific method and slowly industrialised, allowing them to dominate much of the world. Though threatened by rising rivals in the Neo-Carthagian Empire and Tian Zhia - or China in OTL - their scientists discover that there is need for unity, as the world's industry is causing great and terrible changes in the world's climate.
B_Munro's creative backstory and tongue-in-cheek writing (which he incorporates into his maps) was very popular when it came to voting, and his entry easily earned this Honourable Mention.
Awarded for High Popular Support
In lock's entry Spain's colonies in the New World co-ordinated their efforts for independence, and soon formed a federal government to unite their disparate countries as the Colombian Republic. Exerting power and influence early on, Colombia expands northwards, buying Alaska and parts of East Asia off of Russia, reduces Brazil to a strip of coast in the south, brokers the peace in the American Civil War, and even goes as far as gaining colonies in southern Africa.
This premise is executed well in lock's map, which shows the territory of the Colombian Republic and its many neighbours. With an interesting backstory and a good-looking map, lock's entry has earned him this Honourable Mention.
Awarded for High Popular Support
Septimus is light on the description, giving only a few details about the Irish Empire and its domination of the globe. Still, his original premise and well-made map earned his entry many votes, and this Honourable Mention.
Awarded for High Popular Support
In Arcvalons' entry the First Mexican Empire is able to stablise and even take territory from its former rulers in Spain, causing a series of butterflies in Europe and North America that leads to a very strange world war in the early 1900s, as Britain, the Free States of America (formed of seceded, anti-slavery states), and Russia fight against pretty much everyone else, including the Mexican Empire. At the war's conclusion Mexico secures its position as one og the greatest countries in the world, and a League of Nations is set up to keep the peace.
Arcvalons' map takes the form of a page of an alternate, Wikipedia-like website showing the extent of and statistics on the Mexican Empire. This detailed, imaginative map style secured Arcvalons' entry a good number of votes, and this Honourable Mention.
Zuvarq's entry shows a world where the Caliphs of Cordoba convert to Christianity. The prestige associated with their culture causes the native Christian kings to adopt it, even adopting the title of "Caliph" for themselves. After hundreds of years of on-and-off crusades in the Levant; struggles against a heretical, Islam-influenced form of Christianity called "Cidism"; and wars against a confederation of Central Asian, horse-riding nomads called the Red Horde the Caliphs of Andalusia find themselves dominating most of Europe. Having wrestled France and what remains of non-Scandinavian Britain away from their previous rulers through lucky marriages and occasional wars, the Caliphs use their strength to protect and incorporate the ravaged lands of the Byzantine Empire and the Papacy. The Andalusians' neo-Roman Empire stretches from Anatolia to Iberia - even the Pope is lower than the great Caliphs - and the Andalusian Caliphate is truly the greatest empire under the sun.
This imaginative, original backstory is part of what makes Zuvarq's entry great. The map itself is a topographical view of Europe, with dotted lines and provincial abbreviations overlaid to show the extent and structure of the Andalusian Caliphate. The style strikes a good balance between detail and clarity, earning Zuvarq this Honoured Victory. Well done!
Awarded for High Popular Support
(The font I use for these awards apparently doesn't include an underscore, so apologies for that omission).
In B_Munro's entry the Roman Empire is killed in the cradle by an alliance of Carthage and Persia. Over two millenia later Persia has developed the scientific method and slowly industrialised, allowing them to dominate much of the world. Though threatened by rising rivals in the Neo-Carthagian Empire and Tian Zhia - or China in OTL - their scientists discover that there is need for unity, as the world's industry is causing great and terrible changes in the world's climate.
B_Munro's creative backstory and tongue-in-cheek writing (which he incorporates into his maps) was very popular when it came to voting, and his entry easily earned this Honourable Mention.
Awarded for High Popular Support
In lock's entry Spain's colonies in the New World co-ordinated their efforts for independence, and soon formed a federal government to unite their disparate countries as the Colombian Republic. Exerting power and influence early on, Colombia expands northwards, buying Alaska and parts of East Asia off of Russia, reduces Brazil to a strip of coast in the south, brokers the peace in the American Civil War, and even goes as far as gaining colonies in southern Africa.
This premise is executed well in lock's map, which shows the territory of the Colombian Republic and its many neighbours. With an interesting backstory and a good-looking map, lock's entry has earned him this Honourable Mention.
Awarded for High Popular Support
Septimus is light on the description, giving only a few details about the Irish Empire and its domination of the globe. Still, his original premise and well-made map earned his entry many votes, and this Honourable Mention.
Awarded for High Popular Support
In Arcvalons' entry the First Mexican Empire is able to stablise and even take territory from its former rulers in Spain, causing a series of butterflies in Europe and North America that leads to a very strange world war in the early 1900s, as Britain, the Free States of America (formed of seceded, anti-slavery states), and Russia fight against pretty much everyone else, including the Mexican Empire. At the war's conclusion Mexico secures its position as one og the greatest countries in the world, and a League of Nations is set up to keep the peace.
Arcvalons' map takes the form of a page of an alternate, Wikipedia-like website showing the extent of and statistics on the Mexican Empire. This detailed, imaginative map style secured Arcvalons' entry a good number of votes, and this Honourable Mention.
For those wondering, Honourable Mentions are awarded for "high levels of popular support" when someone's entry gets a number of votes that amounts to a third or more of the votes gained by the winner. I can't remember if this is the exact system I used for previous MotF rounds, but it's the one I'm going to be using from now on.
Edit:
Well "The Candle that Burns Twice as Bright" is one of my suggestions, which as I said I'd rather not use. "World with a Twist" doesn't sound like a good challenge to me - all it specifies is the layout of landmasses in the world, everything else is up to the map-maker. That's much too general; challenges should be restrictive enough to inspire ideas in a similar theme, yet general enough to allow for creativity.
Krall
Banned
I always feel like I've missed something or done something wrong when I post the new thread - if I have screwed up somewhere, please do tell me!
An honorable mention! Merci beaucoup!
I will be entering another map this round, with a much better description! My Irish Empire map was kind of quickly made on my iPad: to be honest, I was surprised to see it get so much support.
YOU CAN MAKE MAPS ON IPAD ??? :O
Krall
Banned
I half forgot that you'd suggested that.
What do you fellows think - should the land area need to be disputed between two sovereign countries, or does it just need to be in dispute?
