Project Ironheart: Mapping the Three Great Continents

[LaratheKupo]

I've long had a fondness for maps of fictional worlds and while there are a number of awesome official and fan-made maps of the world of FFXIV, few portray it in any great detail. So for the last year and a half or so, I've been working on maps of Eorzea and the rest of Hydaelyn, a little project I've named in honor of the late great Eorzean explorer Roddard Ironheart. And while the project is not yet complete, with Fan Fest and the anniversery coming up I figured now was a good time to post what I've done so far here.

My goal with these maps is to stay as faithful as possible to and include as many locations as possible from the official maps, lore, and the zones as they appear both in in-game and in 1.0. With the exception of some of the Dalamud impact sites I've added, all the locations are either in-game or in lore.

So far I have maps of Aldenard, the Three Great Continents, Vylbrand, Thanalan/Paglth'an, The Shroud, Gyr Abania, and Coerthas. Maps of other places such as Othard will be added as I do them so stay tuned!

All the maps can be found on Deviantart here: https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...ject-ironheart

***Note!! These are low-res previews since the maps are massive and I cannot for the life of me get the spoiler [HB] tag to work x.x You can see the full maps at the link above as well as the links provided with each map***

Map of Aldenard in the style of the in-game world map [The Ironheart Map]
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...ized-948406621

[LaratheKupo]

Map of the Three Great Continents
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...ents-972544392


Map of Aldenard
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...nard-943427857


Map of Vylbrand
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...FF14-910100295

[LaratheKupo]

Map of Thanalan and Paglth'an
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...F-14-943431255


Map of The Black Shroud
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...F-14-913241887

[LaratheKupo]

Map of Coerthas
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...F-14-943430670


Map of Gyr Abania
https://www.deviantart.com/kupodovah...F-14-920025996

[Alleluia]

The regional maps are very nice.

[Lyth]

This is really nice work, it sounds like it was an enormous amount of effort. We don't really have any detailed maps of the Isle of Yorn south of Old Sharlayan, but it would be interesting to see if it would have looked similar to the peaks of Mount Yorn when the floodwaters were still up.

[rainichan]

Goodness, this is really cool! Thank you for sharing them

[Alleluia]

So...I don't want to make another thread. And this deals with geography and kinda with maps, so... Pardon the necro, pls. Also, I'm bringing in a quote from another thread (on the localization board) I found on this cus its also pertinent.

The ruins of an archaic road, Agelyss Wise's age is so great that some scholars hypothesize that it was already old in the days of ancient Allag.

— In-game description

Agelyss Wise just means exactly what it is: ancient way / road

I wanted to find this "road" from a flying mount (i think when this thread occured you couldn't fly in La Nocsea) but still failed miserably. Not a hint of the actual ancient road or its bed. Remains may have been destroyed by the Dalamud splinter around which the castrum was built. (if there had been any - because there wasn't anything already in 1.0). Maybe that is why it is called Agelyss Wise and not actually Agelyss Via or Agelyss Rad because no paving survived, only the passage - maybe it was cut in landscape. It is yet unclear whether the small trench in rock under the moon shard was remnant from the roadway, or it was cut by the shard, or by Garlean researchers...

I just came across this wiki entry myself and, given its location on Vylbrand which we know was near Amaurot cus of Shadowbringers, it has me wondering if the Agelyss Wise was actually a vestige of an Ancients' roadway to the capitol. And also if there are maybe other vestiges like it on Aldenard. Anyone run across any?

[Enkidoh]

I.. doubt very much the Agelyss Wise is an Amaurotine remnant, simply due to pragmatism - we know Amaurot's location more or less on the Source would equate to where it is on the First (as in, underwater offshore from Vlybrand and roughly a little north-west of Limsa Lominsa), where as Agelyss Wise is on.. the opposite side of the island. Therefore it's clear we're not meant to take Agelyss Wise meaning 'ancient' as 'literal capital-A Ancient', but just... very old, from a past Astral Era. Possibly Allagan (there is a hint of a stone pathway leading down from the Castrum past Wineport.. but the stones are rather broken and mostly overgrown, so it's a bit of a longshot).

After all, we already have the Royal Allagan Sunway and Royal Allagan Starway in Thanalan on Aldenard (and both were also in 1.0) which look a lot like Agelyss Wise - all three seem to be made from random stone blocks, like the Allagan Sunway/Starway, that look nothing like the crosshatched concrete paving blocks the Amaurotines used for their roads (of course weathering could have changed their appearence, but that's probably just grasping at straws).

And we have to remember SE deliberately included a statement that neatly heads off this sort of discussion in ShB - where Y'shtola outright states that no remnants of Amaurot would still remain on the Source because the constant Calamities have changed the landscape so much they would have been obliterated long ago anyway.

[Alleluia]

I mean... roads do cross islands, so I don't see how saying its on the opposite side of the island was a valid counter, but ok? Though, actually Kholusia equates to lower LN, if you look at the maps. Eulmore is on the southern tip of the island. Which would put Amaurot to the south of Vylbrand, given the direction we see Bismarck fly, not NW of Limsa. And Lower LN is of course connected to Eastern LN, where the road is. Not that its remotely 1-to-1 geographically anymore cus calamities, but the city's location in relation to an entire island should still be the same. Its not as if the island and surrounding seabed spun around or something. (Probably.)

We do know the road is not Allagan, though. The quote describing it in-game says it was already old in the days of Allag.

And considering what we know of the eras before Allag, there were only two astral eras before them; one of which was the stone/bronze age (first astral), and the second astral, which saw steel and masonry developed in earnest. (per wiki timeline)

Now, the second era is a possible candidate for it, I suppose, given the statement that "Stonemasonry sees a rapid advance". As it reads to me, the 2nd is basically the greco-roman period to the 1st' bronze age. (Its even followed by a (pop culture not necessarily accurate) "dark age"-style calamity era before the Allagan "enlightenment" starts.) And we all know roman roads were notable. However, I'm not sure that being from the second era would qualify it as "already old" enough in relation to 3rd era Allag to get a note like that, personally. Also, we don't have any indication there was anything important enough from that era on Vylbrand to warrant a road at all, much less one that lasted millennia. (In fact, I don't even think we know if the island was settled at that point?)

In-game, the Agelyss Wise is notable b/c its traces have lasted 5 millennia, through 5 calamities (including one marked by a realm-wide earthquake), so its construction must *really* have been something. And a road needs to lead somewhere, and Amaurot is the only thing of note in the area before Allag's time, that we're aware of. And ancient creation magic methods would have the best chance of having construction advanced enough to last so long.

Meta-wise, I think its a solid possibility that the road called the "agelyss wise" deals with something timeless and ancient, aka the Unsundered World. It may not have been called that by the builders of it at the time, obviously. I just mean, looking at it as a place name in a story, it fits the theme: the Ageless Way leading to the utopia of Amaurot.