VELLUM

Vellum's charts, gazetteer, and realm names borrow real cartography, heraldry, and geography vocabulary, some of it centuries old. Here's what it all means.

On the chart itself

These print as literal legend or key text on a rendered chart.

Cartouche

The decorative title panel on an antique-style chart.

Fathom

A unit of water depth equal to six feet (about 1.8 meters), the traditional unit for nautical soundings. Vellum's depth readings are labeled in fathoms.

Hypsometric tint

Shading land by elevation band, the coloring scheme used on the topographic style.

Isohyet

A line connecting points of equal rainfall, the contour lines on the Rainfall plate.

Isotherm

A line connecting points of equal temperature, the contour lines on the Temperature plate.

Realm seat

A settlement that serves as a realm's seat of power: the capital, or one of its smaller provincial seats.

Recto

The front of a chart: the side the map is drawn on. Turn the sheet over in the Explorer to find its verso.

Rhumb line

A straight line of constant compass bearing, radiating from the compass rose in the old navigator's style.

Rock awash

A nautical chart mark for a rock exposed or barely covered at the surface, a hazard to ships.

Shoal / danger line

A tinted shallow-water zone on nautical charts, bounded by a dashed line marking the hazardous edge.

Sounding

A numbered depth reading, in fathoms, scattered over open water on nautical charts.

Surveyor's glass

The hand lens kept on the chart table, and the Explorer's magnifier named for it. Lean closer over an antique chart and the surveyor redrafts the window under the glass as a finer regional survey, its coastline inked in and its newly placed names drying by tier; stand back and the full sheet returns.

Verso

The back of a chart. Real charts were folded into pilot books and docketed on the reverse, so Vellum's verso carries a docket line, the surveyor's attribution, and a survey-office stamp. Turn the sheet in the Explorer to read it.

Weather & climate

Biome

A category of plant and animal life shaped by climate. Tundra, taiga, steppe, savanna, and forest all appear across Vellum's worlds.

Orographic

Having to do with how mountains shape weather, especially by wringing rain out of wind forced upward: orographic lift on the wet side, a rain shadow on the dry one.

Prevailing wind

A world's dominant wind direction, drawn as arrows on nautical charts.

Windward / leeward

The side of high ground facing into the wind, which catches the rain, versus the sheltered side, which stays dry.

Heraldry (coats of arms)

Blazon

To formally describe or display a coat of arms.

Charge

A symbol or figure placed on a shield.

Ordinary

A simple geometric band across a shield: a cross, chevron, bend, fess, or pale.

Rule of tincture

The heraldic law that color can't sit on color, nor metal on metal, so a shield always reads clearly at a glance. Every coat of arms Vellum draws obeys it.

Tincture

The limited heraldic palette: two metals (gold, or; silver, argent) and five colors (red, gules; blue, azure; black, sable; green, vert; purple, purpure).

Geography & place

Archipelago

A scattered group of islands, one of Vellum's four map types.

Atelier

An artist's workshop. Vellum calls itself "an atelier of imaginary cartography" in its own footer.

Confluence

The point where two rivers meet.

Estuary

The widening mouth of a river where it meets the sea.

Gazetteer

A directory of place names. Vellum's gazetteer lists every town on the map, grouped by realm, with a line or two of travelers' notes.

Hinterland

The inland territory a city depends on, especially a city-state's supporting countryside.

Vellum

Prepared animal skin used as a writing and drawing surface for real medieval maps and manuscripts, the material this whole project takes its name from.

Watershed

The boundary between two river drainage systems. Vellum's realm borders prefer to follow these.

Words on your own map

Each of Vellum's six invented cultures borrows its realm and place-name vocabulary from a real language or region that matches its sound. Here's what those words mean where they come from, grouped by the culture that uses them.

Norden, the hard northern tongue

Fell

A mountain or stretch of high, barren moorland, a word used in Northern England and Scandinavia.

Jarldom

The territory or rank of a jarl, an Old Norse nobleman roughly equal to an earl.

March

A borderland or frontier territory, the root of "the Welsh Marches" and "margrave."

Oromi, the island tongue

Atoll

A ring-shaped coral reef, island, or islet chain enclosing a lagoon.

Chiefdom

A hierarchical society under a paramount chief, more organized than a tribe, less centralized than a state. Historically the term used for pre-contact Hawaiian and other Pacific island societies.

Sylvan, the woodland tongue

Downs

Open, grassy chalk upland, like England's South Downs.

Mere

An old word for a lake or shallow pond.

Tor

A rocky hilltop or craggy outcrop.

Vale

An archaic word for valley.

Wold

Open, rolling, treeless upland, like England's Yorkshire Wolds or the Cotswolds.

Thalassic & Draket, the seafaring and mountain-clan tongues

Dominion

A territory under a ruler's control. Historically also the term for self-governing territories of the British Empire.

Veshari, the desert tongue

Sultanate

The territory or reign of a sultan, a Muslim sovereign.

Wadi

A valley or channel that runs dry except in the rainy season, in North Africa and the Middle East.