Hello, adventurer!

Welcome to the post about the United States of America map created by Santiago Reyes. In this entry, you will see the different stages of creation and development of the illustration.

Illustration of the 48 Contiguous States

To better organize the information from the development notes, the following topics were prioritized:

• 🌎✨ New Details

• 📝⚙️ Improvements

🌎✨ New Details

• The three main mountain ranges of the United States have been illustrated: the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the Appalachian Mountains.

• The major water sources derived from the Mississippi River and others have been added.

Artist's Notes: Since the United States is so large, only certain rivers important to the country's geography were selected. This part was partially inspired by those mapped by ConservationOfWumbo or EthanolMaps in their own map of the United States.

• Architectural landmarks have been added:

  • Washington D.C.: The Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument

  • New York: Statue of Liberty

  • Seattle: Space Needle

  • Irvine: The Orc Statue – Blizzard HQ

  • South Dakota: Mount Rushmore

  • Missouri: Gateway Arch

  • Hawaii Map: USS Arizona | Pearl Harbor Memorial

• Secondary cities have been added:

  • New York

  • Knoxville

  • Miami

  • Orlando

  • Carbondale (CO)

• Natural landmarks have been added:

  • California: Muir Woods

  • Arizona: Grand Canyon

  • Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park - Grand Prismatic Spring

  • Colorado: Mount Elbert

  • New York: Niagara Falls

  • Utah: Monument Valley

  • Nevada: Area 52-1 (we all know what this refers to, right? 😉)

• • The extreme points of the contiguous 48 states have been added:

  • North: Northwest Angle

  • South: Ballast Key

  • East: Hiking Trail

  • West: Bodelteh Islands

  • The extreme points of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) have also been placed:

    • North: Alaska - Point Barrow

    • West: Alaska - Attu Island

    • South: Hawaii - Ka Lae, on the Island of Hawai'i

• Nautical connections to states outside the contiguous 48 have been added:

  • Hawaiian Islands

  • Alaska

• Two extra maps representing the entirety of the country have been created and will be published accordingly after this map:

  • Alaska: January 22

  • Hawaiian Islands: January 23

  
  

Artist's Notes: Two extra maps were made to maintain the artistic style's consistency and provide parity for the country. Both maps, Alaska and Hawaii, will follow artistic approaches already seen in Beyond to the Islands. Therefore, including independent development notes would be redundant.

• The country's major ports have been added.

• The Bald Eagle has been added as the national animal.

  • For Alaska, I added the Tuskarr ilustration.

• The cartographic interface has been partially removed.

• For the cartographic interface, the following icons have been added:

  • Places:

    • Blizzard HQ

  • Demographics:

    • Icon for cities with +1M population

      
      

Artist's Notes: The cartographic interface was partially removed due to limited space on the map. However, it can be included as an add-on (available for free to anyone who acquires the HD version).

The section related to this point is the Cartographic Interface. For this publication, which is in English so that the native population of this country can understand it, I’ll provide you with a quick summary of its purpose and the approach it uses to blend information with WoW art:

"The interface allows users to explore the maps dynamically, accessing detailed information about each area, its inhabitants, resources, and events. Additionally, the interface offers the option to customize the maps with preferences for cartographic information, displaying data related to demographics, geography, and key points of interest.

1. Conventions Table: The "Conventions Table" is a tool that allows users to view and modify the symbols and colors used to represent various geographic, political, and cultural elements on the maps.

2. Parallels: "Parallels" represent the geographic distribution of countries and regions in a map styled after World of Warcraft.

3. Scales: Map scales are tools that adjust the level of detail and extent of a map. This feature is highly useful for the cartographic interface. During the initial development of map scales, two types were proposed:

   • Graphic Scale: The graphic scale is an essential element for interpreting map information accurately. It consists of a segmented line that represents the relationship between real-world distances and the distances shown on the map. The graphic scale allows users to measure distances between points of interest on the map, as well as calculate the area or perimeter of represented regions. The graphic scale adjusts to the map's zoom level, ensuring it always displays the correct proportion between the map and reality. It shows distances in inches and miles (for the United States, which uses the Imperial System) and is located within the conventions table (or, in exceptional cases, outside of it).

   • Numerical Scale: The numerical scale expresses the relationship between distance on the map and actual distance on the ground. For example, a scale of 1:100,000 means that every centimeter on the map equals one mile in reality. The numerical scale is crucial for interpreting maps accurately, as it helps to understand the size and shape of territories, as well as the distance between them and points of interest.

4. Legends: Legends are essential elements for understanding maps. They allow users to identify the symbols, colors, and scales that represent various geographic, historical, and cultural aspects of a region.

5. Demographic Legend: The geographic function of maps goes beyond legends and symbols; it also reflects a reality: how many people live in a specific place. This feature applies only to major urban areas and facilitates the organization of illustrations for each country."

   
   

📝⚙️ Improvements

• Bright colors have been chosen for the nautical connections of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska aiming to give parity to the coloring technique seen in Isle of Dorn and Siren Isle from The War Within.

• Adjustments were made to the cities on the East Coast of the United States (mainly those near New York and Washington D.C.) to fit the representative monuments of this area.

• The port icon has been improved and corrected to stand out more against the darker colors of the illustration.

• This is the first country created using Santiago Reyes's new PC. For more information, check out his new setup in the 2024 Summary post.

⚠️ Disclaimer: Changes in Official Nomenclature

All maps created as part of the “Proyecto America | Beyond🧭 to the New World” are based on official information and place names recognized at the time of their creation. Certain geographical names, such as the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali, may have been altered by executive or administrative decisions made after the publication of these maps.

🗒️ Important: The representation of names on these maps does not reflect any political stance or intend to contradict any official resolutions. Our primary goal is to preserve the artistic style and historical context of the time when they were designed. Any future editions will take updated naming conventions into account if applicable.

✨ We appreciate your understanding and support for this artistic work, which aims to connect real-world geography with a more fantastic perspective.

The Hawaiian Islands are a collection of mysterious sites from civilizations that used the ocean as more than just a conduit to reach destinations. Their natural wealth, combined with an extensive history of volcanic activity, makes this American territory a paradisiacal place.

Final Illustration:

The vast frozen territory of Alaska hosts a chain of natural events that drew the first humans to this remote and distant place. Shrouded in dense snow, the secrets of this expansive state inspire Americans to explore even more of what they already possess.

Final Illustration:

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⛔ Know issues and next fixes:

For 48 Contiguous Map:

1. The location of Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone are reversed. In the next version, it's fixed.

2. Kentucky's capital is not Frankport, it's Frankfort. In the next version, it's fixed.

3. New cities have been added to the map:

   1. Chicago

   2. Los Angeles

   3. Las Vegas

New natural landmarks have been added:

4. Rio Missisippi

For Alaska Map:

1. The name of Mount Denali was misspelled. In the next version, it's fixed.

2. The name of Arctic Ocean was misspelled. In the next version, it's fixed.

   
   
   
   

🗺️🤔 Credits

• Blizzard Entertainment as the owner of World of Warcraft (WoW) and its art.

• Stryxin - Forgotten Adventures (forgotten-adventures.net) as the initial creator of the map tutorial.

This concludes the development journey of the map. I hope you enjoyed it!

If you want to purchase the illustration and support the artist, you can visit the Buy section on the website or click the following button:

Buy (ES)

¡Together we are America!

Santiago Reyes

Project America Leader - World of Warcraft style maps

🚨©️ - Creative Commons (CC) 4.0

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.