The Great Map of Brun

By many cartographers

The purpose of this article is to introduce the great broad-scale maps of Brun which were made over the years by the Mystaran fan community, as no complete canon map existed of the western or northern parts of the continent. As we will see, there is not always consistency or consensus on the shape and position of some geographic features of the continent. This aspect could be incorporated into the campaign itself and be funny and interesting in a game set in the wilderlands of Brun, as the players may have to use available maps, to discover that they are unreliable or incorrect.

In this article will be used the names of the people who created these maps as they appear in the Vaults of Pandius and, if available, their nicknames on The Piazza forum. The DM could choose to use these names in game as actual explorers of Brun or just attribute them to fictional figures or unknown adventurers.

Thibault Sarlat and Christian Constantin maps

It all started with Thibault Sarlat and Christian Constantin, the first ones to try to map the continent of Brun at 24 miles per hex back in 1999:
- Thibault Sarlat’s maps of Brun in the Tome of Mystara http://www.pandius.com/tome/tomevol2/maps/intro.html

[Image: Thibault Sarlat’s map]

- Christian Constantin’s Map of the Great Hule and the Midlands AC 1000 current as of 10 May 1999. http://pandius.com/h1000ac.jpg
- Christian Constantin’s Map of Borea, current as of 1999. http://pandius.com/boreasmap.jpg
- Map of Western Brun, AC 1000 at 24 mph by Christian Constantin, current as of 1999.
http://pandius.com/yalumap.jpg

[Image: Christian Constantin’s map]

With these maps, filled with name tags inspired by Central Asian cultures and including the Yezchamenid and Zuyevo Empires created by Adrian Mattias, Thibault and Christian (who also wrote extensively about Hule and its history¹) gave a first identity to Central and Western Brun.
More recently, taking into consideration other fan works, in particular the Midlands² by James Mishler and the new maps of the area by Carillion³, Christian Constantin also made a new map of Hule and the Yalu sea, moving the latter more to the west:

Map of Central Brun, 1000 AC from The Piazza posted 29 October 2014.
http://pandius.com/Midlands_24x.png

Kal’s map

Around 2009, Kal aka Andrea Francolini, mapped the whole of Mystara at 24 miles per hex maps, including Brun:
- Brun, AC 1160 by Andrea Francolini, current as of 4 January 2009. http://pandius.com/BRUN_Kal_campaign_AC1160.jpg

[Image: Kal’s map]

His map is specific to a campaign set in 1160 AC and has Italian name tags, but it is still a great resource to start mapping or exploring Brun. However his map makes the Borea River and the Yalu River a unique river system flowing from north to south, while in GAZ10: “The Orcs of Thar” and the Hollow World boxed set the two rivers are clearly separated with the Borea River flowing from south to north.

Thorfinn Tait’s maps

From 2005 to the present day, Thorfinn Tait has recreated practically all of the Mystara maps ever published in canon products, including the whole Known World, Savage Coast and the Arm of the Immortals in Brun.

Thorfinn’s maps are stored in the Vaults of Pandius: http://pandius.com/ttait.html and on his site the Atlas of Mystara http://mystara.thorf.co.uk/. Here I also want to point out his magnificent and huge map of the Savage Coast at 8 miles per hex, from the Gulf of Hule to the Yalu Bay: http://pandius.com/savage-coast-8.png

[Image: Thorfinn’s Savage Coast map]

OldDawg/JTR and DJ Hartel’s map

The map by DJ Hartel uses all of the available canon sources and also the GazF series by OldDawg/JTR united in a big 24 miles per hex map. Included here is the Swamp of the Beast, previously an unnamed swamp appearing in the “Wrath of the Immortals” boxed set map⁴, and the Borean River has a plateau around it, partially occupied by the Kingdom of the Dead, also from the GazF series.

[Image: DJ Hartel’s map]

Eastern Brun Conglomeration, 24 miles per hex by DJ Hartel http://pandius.com/m_estbrn.html

Robin’s map

Using the above sources, Robin did the first great map of Eastern Brun at 8 miles per hex, also using Sturm/Francesco’s (mine) 8 mph map of the Adri Varma plateau⁵. See also Threshold issue #6, where Robin’s map was first presented, and issue #7, which contains her article on the Grouzhina flood.

[Image: Robin’s map]

Detailed Map of Northeast Brun compiled and created by Robin, current as of 18 March 2013. http://pandius.com/tm_north_by_6inchnails-d5yfvcd.jpg

Sturm/Francesco’s first Brun map and Roberto Roma’s interactive map

Also using the GazF series but just modifying Kal’s map, back in 2011 Sturm/Francesco Defferrari did his own Brun map (http://pandius.com/brun.png), trying to put into it all the available canon information, excellently summarized by LoZompatore in his reference map (http://pandius.com/refmapnm.html). Sturm/Francesco’s first map was also used by Roberto Roma/Omnibius to create his interactive map of Mystara: http://www.roberto.roma.it/map/MYSTARA.html

[Image: Omnibius’s map]


The tags used by Roberto come partially from canon and fan information and partially are his own creation. He made several fan Gazetteers in Italian that now cover the whole of Brun. The Gazetteers’ covers can be seen here:
http://www.roberto.roma.it/FORUM/pop_printer_friendly.asp?TOPIC_ID=547
and downloaded here http://www.roberto.roma.it/forum/filelibrary.asp by registering to Omnibius’ forum. The Gazetteers are also in the Vaults of Pandius (http://pandius.com/omnibius.html) and Gary Davies has translated two of them into English (Hule/Kavkaz and Adri Varma).

Sturm/Francesco’s updated Brun map

More recently Francesco modified his 24 miles per hex Brun map as explained in a posting in The Piazza Forums now stored on The Vaults (see link below), mostly to do some modifications to the Kal’s original map that he used as a starting point. His map is still a work in progress and it would need some cleaning, and should be updated with the later material developed mostly by Roberto Roma/Omnibius and Matthew Fleet/Carillion.

[Image: Sturm’s map]


Map of Brun by Francesco Defferrari from The Piazza posted 28 May 2014.
http://pandius.com/m_brun.html

Mindszenty’s map

A Russian fan of Mystara, mindszenty, made a beautiful non-hex hand-painted map of Brun which could be perfect for players. It would make a great map done in the emerging Empire of Zuyevo, since name tags are in cyrillic. A version with English names is also available in the same link below.

[Image: mindszenty’s map]

Hand-painted map of Brun by mindszenty from The Piazza posted 27 December 2015. http://pandius.com/m_brun2.html

Matthew Fleet/Carillion’s maps

Matthew Fleet, aka Carillion, has done several beautiful 24 miles per hex maps of Brun since 2014. More about his latest work can be read in his article in this issue. United with the latest map by Christian Constantin linked above, his maps cover a big region of south western Brun in 24 miles per hex.

Map of The High Borean Valley and the Midlands from The Piazza posted 8 July 2014.
http://pandius.com/m_hbvml.html

Map of the Great Northway Lands from The Piazza posted 11 October 2015.
http://pandius.com/m_nrthwy.html

Map of the Eastern Savage Coast and Greater Hule from The Piazza posted 15 November 2015.
http://pandius.com/m_eschul.html

Map of The Orc's Head Peninsula, Savage Coast, Great Northway Lands and Greater Hule (a.k.a. "Southold") from The Piazza posted 3 January 2016.
http://pandius.com/Orcs_Head_Peninsula_8_Combo_2.jpg

Map of Northern Black Mountains, 24 miles per hex from The Piazza posted 2 May 2016.
http://pandius.com/m_nblkmt.html

Map of Northern Norwold, 24 Miles per Hex from The Piazza posted 15 January 2017.
http://pandius.com/nnorwold.html

[Image: Carillion’s maps]

In this issue, there are also more 8 miles per hex maps of Brun: The Arms of the Immortals and Western Brun by Ignacio Ramos.

Images