A while back I wrote about a Fantasy Risk board I made (http://creation.evanweppler.com/2011/11/14/fantasy-risk/) but I never posted pictures or anything. Well, here ya go.
I organized the different lands from a variety of children’s tales, fantasy stories, and classic mythology. The various continents are:
Empyrea (7)- These are the heavenly lands (empyrean- the highest reaches of heaven, believed by the ancients to be a realm of pure fire or light), which is a reason why they are at the top of the map: Undying Lands (from Lord of the Rings), Asgard (Norse mythology), North Pole (Santa’s home), Mount Olympus(Greek mythology), Shangri La (from Lost Horizon, also known as Shambhala), El Dorado (the fabled city of gold that conquistadors searched for in the New World), and Turtle Island (North American mythology).
Albiona (6)- This is based on the word “Albion”, which is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. All of these places are British in origin, location, or feel– Avalon (island from Arthurian legend), Camelot(castle from Arthurian legend), Sherwood Forest (from tales of Robin Hood), Mad Hat, Cheshire Cat Forest, and Queen of Hearts Realm (all references to people and areas in Alice in Wonderland).
Ardiana (9)- This is somewhat based on JRR Tolkien’s term for Earth in LOTR, “Arda.” These lands all have similar styles and stories: Giant Land (from The BFG by Roald Dahl), Lantern Waste, Cair Paravel, Archenland, Calormen (4 areas from The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis), The Shire. Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor (4 areas from Tolkien’s LOTR series).
Astoria (10)- This is simply a play on words with the word “story” but it is also a fancy title for certain places, such as the Waldorf-Astoria: Fantasia (from The Never Ending Story), Wonka Factory (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl), Whoville (from Dr. Seus’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas), Emerald City, Munchkin Land (2 places from the Oz series), Digitopolis, Dictionopolis, Doldrums, Castle in the Air (4 areas from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster [many have not read it, so hopefully this will be a tool to increase its popularity]), and Where the Sidewalk Ends (a reference to Shel Silverstein and all his works).
The Isles (8)– These are all islands from various stories and mythologies: Cyclops Land (from Homer’s The Odyssey), Loompa Land (referenced in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Utopia (from the writing of Sir Thomas More), Atlantis (a legendary island), Lilliput (from Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift), Never Never Land (the home of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys), Where the Wild Things Are (from the story by Maurice Sendak), and Jurassic Park (from the book by Michael Crichton).
The Wilds (5)- These places are the wild places, the jungles, the forests (you can notice that Where the Wild Things Are is located nearby): Nool Jungle (from Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss), Elephant Land, Rhino Land (from the Babar series), Jumanji (from the classic children’s book), and Tarzan Jungle (from the writings of the extraordinary Edgar Rice Burroughs).
Imagil (6)– These counties are places of Imagination and Wonder: Hundred Acre Wood (from the Winnie the Pooh tales), Guilder, Florin (from The Princess Bride), Hogwarts, Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade (from the Harry Potter series [I thought about putting these in Albiona, but fancied placing them separately]).
Mystil (4)– The countries are places of Mystery and Confusion- many of them are lost to the world. Truffala Tree Forest (from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax), The Land that Time Forgot (from the story of the same title by Edgar Rice Burroughs), The Lost World (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), and Fountain of Youth (the famous place of renewed vigor and strength which Ponce de Leon searched for in the New World).
Each of these countries have their own cards, like in regular Risk. When you get combinations you get more armies. In regular Risk the three types of cards are: Soldier, Cavalry, or Militia. In this Risk, the three types are Power (anything from Love [in Whoville] to Butter Beer [in Hogsmeade]), Army (such as Hobbits from The Shire or Lethargians from The Doldrums), and Leader (like Zeus, King Arthur, or Peter Pan). I might post pictures of the cards in the future, if I get a chance. In the meanwhile, you can print this out* and play your own game and simply use regular Risk cards (though they can’t point to specific countries, if you play that way).
I love Risk (and Games). I love Fantasy (and stories). And I love Creating. This, my friends, is the center of the Venn Diagram, if you catch my drift.
Let me know what you think!
*(You can download a large version of the board at http://imgur.com/wig2z.)