Maps! Lovely old maps where be dragons. The spellbinding tease before a story. Maps promising ornate cities, bushy forests and bumpy mountains. Maps with dark caves, smouldering volcanoes and strange beasties. Maps of great adventure and excitement yet to be had.
The first map I really remember was The Hobbit. I’m sure it’s the same for many of you. That simple map drawn by a dwarf. That simple map followed by dwarves and hobbit and wizard, there and back again. It’s not the fanciest map – it’s not as detailed and sprawling as The Lord of the Rings’ map – but it had all the mystery and intrigue it needed to glue my eyes to it, to wonder when – if – we’d ever get to the end, to Smaug.
That love of maps continued with games. Do you remember the gorgeous cloth maps games used to come with? Oh my! Why did that ever change? Richard Garriott’s Ultima series was brilliant for this – he seems to understand a map’s power so well. I spent hours looking at Ultima Online’s map, at the evocative dungeon names – places I was nowhere near powerful enough to explore so they bloomed in my imagination.
But packing maps hasn’t completely vanished. CD Projekt Red has a fondness for the old ways, so The Witcher 3 came with a beautiful illustrated map. It’s so colourful and fanciful – the sea monsters, particularly – it’s a pity the game doesn’t have the same art style (though it’s beautiful in its own right of course).
Maps are a stable of any fantasy adventure, really – any world you spend a long time in. Skyrim’s satellite-style map really brought out the power of the jagged, snowy mountain ranges. The gradual shading of Dragon Age: Origins’ parchment map was an effective way to reinforce the spread of the game’s evil, the Blight. Mass Effect’s Galaxy Map is jaw-dropping, and a clever way to remind people of the majesty and vastness of space.
There are so many wonderful maps I cannot possibly name them all, but here are five of my favourites for various reasons. Naturally, you will have yours and I would love to hear about them below.
It’s a map of a fantasy land you’re yet to explore, which in itself is exciting, but the real magic comes from there being three lands, three realms, three sides – and each are inaccessible to the other. If you decide to inhabit Albion (a kind of England), for example, you can’t also explore Hibernia (a kind of Ireland) or Midgard (a kind of Scandinavia), and nor can they do likewise. The warring sides are separated, destined to only ever meet in nervy contested zones populated by capturable keeps and housing your side’s powerful relic.