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Fantasy Meets Reality4/19/2020 Despite COVID-19 keeping people indoors, imagination can never be tamed. In these interesting times, people turn to novels and films for a brief escape into worlds full of magic and mystery, such as Middle Earth, Westeros, Earthsea, and even Narnia. While these worlds were created through intensive writing and research there remains one question: how do illustrators and cartographers illustrate these worlds on a map?
Fantasy cartographers like Johnathon Roberts, creator of the Game of Thrones series maps, all agree that while imagination maps can be stylized they must also have two key elements: reasonable geography and story. Mason Mappers decided to try to put their geography skills to the test on April 16, 2020, at the club's first ever Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) and Fantasy Map Hack-a-thon! The club members came together via Webex with a goal to produce a fantasy or Sci-Fi themed map within one hour that conveyed a story of their own choosing. To create these maps, the club members used a cartography platform called Inkarnate. Inkarnate, a web-based cartography tool kit, allows for users of all skill levels to create their fantasy world from scratch. Club members used this to their advantage and were able to create their own geographic countries along with different levels of terrain. Their terrains included habitats for dragons or sea serpents, villages, and even the occasional wizard tower hidden in the mountains. Many of the club members expressed that there was a small learning curve to using Inkarnate as creating geography is much different than analyzing data on it. However, after some trial and error, the members created imaginative maps with stories on how their worlds functioned. This gave members insight as to what illustrators and cartographers work with when developing worlds in pop culture. "The Fantasy Hack-a-thon was a super valuable event," Amy Rose, Grad Student and Mason Mappers Member said. "I got to exercise my cartographic creativity that sometimes gets neglected in all of the non-fictional maps I focus on." The event was a creative and inspirational experience that brought the club closer together as a community. "It was nice to just take a break from all the stress [of classes]," said Adam Black, GMU Grad Student and Mason Mappers Vice President, "and to explore the more creative side of mapping." Mason Mappers looks forward to hosting the event again next year in person. For more information on fantasy maps please refer to the Dungeons and Dragons Maps & Map Tools blog.
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