When I wrote my two-part review of the Northlands Worldbook, I mentioned that I intend to use the companion Northlands Sagas as my first full Tales of the Valiant campaign in the World of Tolrendor.

That decision, of course, immediately raises the obvious question:

How do I integrate the Northlands into an existing homebrew world without it feeling bolted-on?

For me, the answer always starts in the same place:

The Map

Before politics, before cultures, before gods and sagas and dragon-haunted jarldoms…

And for that, I always end up returning to my old faithful:

Campaign Cartographer

I’ve been using Campaign Cartographer in one form or another for decades now, and despite the explosion of modern mapping tools over the last few years, I still think it remains one of the most versatile and powerful RPG cartography applications ever made.

It has never really been the easiest tool. But it’s one of the deepest.

And once you know how to drive it, it can produce maps with an astonishing amount of personality and flexibility.

What has always elevated it beyond “just a mapping application” for me, though, is the incredible longevity and creativity of the Cartographer’s Annual series.

Back in 2011, I wrote about RPG mapping and the Annual series on the old Tolrendor blog. At that point the Annual had been running for four years.

Four.

It has now somehow been running for twenty years.

That’s an absurd amount of content.

And remarkably, the quality and variety really hasn’t dropped off.

Every year brings new mapping styles, symbol collections, techniques, tools, templates, and ideas. Some are niche. Some are experimental. Some become instant classics.

But the result is that over time Campaign Cartographer has become less a single mapping style and more a library of fantasy cartography styles and traditions.

And that became important the moment I started planning my Tolrendor equivalent of the Northlands.

Finding the Right Style

The Northlands Worldbook map — illustrated by Sean MacDonald — clearly evokes the visual DNA of the original Midgard Campaign Setting maps created by Jon Roberts.

Campaign Cartographer has supported Jon Roberts-inspired styles for years, so the obvious first instinct was:

Jon Roberts Revisited (October 2022)

And honestly?

It still looks fantastic.

But…

I’ve mapped in that style quite a lot over the years, though, and part of me wants the Tolrendor Northlands to feel like a new creative chapter: inspired by Midgard’s mythic northern atmosphere, but not visually beholden to it.

So I started exploring alternatives from recent Annuals.

Ancient Realms Revisited (January 2025)

This one immediately grabbed me.

It has a slightly older-school fantasy atlas feel, but still enough texture and terrain detail to support a serious campaign setting.

There’s something about the coastlines and mountain rendering that feels particularly suitable for sagas, kingdoms, and mythic journeys.

It’s also designed for mapping large continental areas, which the Northlands definitely will be.

Hand-Drawn Fantasy (May/June 2025)

This style has enormous charm.

It feels personal.

Almost journal-like.

I could see this working brilliantly for regional or in-world maps — perhaps something produced by a skald, explorer, or merchant guild within Tolrendor itself.

I’m less convinced it works as the primary Northlands campaign map, but I absolutely want to use elements of this style somewhere.

Parchment Worlds (February 2024)

This one leans harder into the classic parchment aesthetic.

Very evocative.

Very “campaign setting sourcebook.”

Potentially excellent for world-scale mapping — particularly if I decide to finally redraw the wider Tolrendor world properly.

Why This Matters More Than People Think

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that maps quietly shape campaigns far more than most people realise.

A good map creates narrative gravity.

Players begin asking questions naturally:

• What’s beyond those mountains?
• Who controls those islands?
• Why are all the settlements clustered around that bay?
• What happened in the frozen north?

And for adventures in the Northlands, where travel, culture, myth, and isolation matter enormously, the map becomes part of the storytelling engine.

That means I need the Tolrendor equivalent to feel like it has always existed.

Not “here is Viking Land pasted awkwardly onto the side of the continent.”

It needs to breathe naturally inside the world.

So… Which One?

Right now, I’m leaning toward Ancient Realms Revisited as the foundation style.

It feels like the best balance between:

• mythic atmosphere
• readability
• large-scale geography
• a cool palette that I think will suit the wind-swept, mountainous wilderness of the Northlands

…but what do you think?

And honestly, simply browsing twenty years of Cartographer’s Annual styles has completely reignited my enthusiasm for fantasy mapping…

The mapping juices are flowing.

Now I just need to decide where the fjords go — and which forgotten kingdoms once ruled them.