Late last year I had shared with many people my home-brew world setting Primeordia. A world once dominated by Primordial elemental’s. Later ruled as a cherished jewel by a dragon god. Only to find its end as its creations rose up to take his life and power. Ending with his apocalyptic death and the forming of the new world. The ancestors of the survivors that sought his power now live on the land that was once the great dragons remains.

With this world creation myth I set forward nearly 2o years ago and began spinning the tale that is my home-brew game. Not one with any map making skill, I did my best. I had a good idea of what I wanted and I knew that a majority of my campaign’s would take place in one location. So I drew a sizable map of one region. That region would be known as, The Maw.

For years my games took place it this region of the world and still do. It is a massive stretch of land after all. This land was home to many games took place between the gaping maw the once great dragon. A game literally played in the dragons mouth. As time would go on in the last few years I have wanted to expand the world. The biggest thing that was holding be back as silly as it sounds is I can not for the life of me draw .. pretty much anything. So I reached out to my friends.

In time the world began to take shape. A Great friend Nick helped put my vision to paper and give it the first whole images. He did a wonderful job, and the rest of my world began to take shape on paper and no longer just in my mind.

I later would learn that one of my friends who is a great artist also had a passion for drawing world maps. I saw some of his work and I knew he was the one that needed to take my map to its next evolution. I asked him if he would take on the task and bring it to life. He agreed and I told him to take what ever creative licences that he wished as long as he left the maw as it has always been. He agreed and set to work. What he came back with stunned most who see it. My world re-imagined yet still very much a personification of the spirit of my game world.

For the better part of a year I thought this was the last phase of this worlds evolution. Then I bumped into Fosters Leathercrafts on my twitter. He saw my map and loved it as much as I did. He wanted to bring the map one step further. To craft this final version of this map in leather. We spoke and when I was sure that I wanted to this to happen we began talking about the crafting of the map. He has made several maps and wanted to bring this epic map full circle. Not just to be a map. But a piece of art. And by no stretch of the word that is exactly what he did.

Once I gave him the go ahead I got to experience something that I had not thought about up until that part. Fosters Leathercraft after all is a business. He has his own Etsy store and everything. I knew this but had not thought about it up until the time that I sent him the image to begin work on. Something I want to make a note of for my readers. The level of profession and passion is bar none. The passion to do the work was so great that at no point did it ever feel like we were even in a business transaction.

The other thing that I never thought about was the tremendous amount of work and preparation that was going to go into bringing this map from paper to leather. I was impressed by the flow of information between Fosters Leathercraft and I. Daily often twice a day or more I would get follow-up emails as test samples were being prepared and the map was being drawn up and leather ready.

Over the course of a two-week period we exchanged nearly 40 emails discussing the maps creation! I could not have asked for more info if he was making this map next door. Not an entire country away!

I will leave you with this slide show of some of the steps of this epic creation that was only made possible because Fosters Leathercraft wanted to see this come to life in leather and up until then my map was just a map. Now my map is a piece of art! Thank You!

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If you want to contact Fosters Leathercraft you can reach him at any of the following.

His Etsy Store. HERE

His blog HERE

Twitter is @fosterlather