Simone shared a series of posts from his rakasta project in August 2008. He first introduced his adjusted version of Michele Carpita’s Precataclysmic Mystara map before going on to post maps based on that template to illustrate his timeline. The map below is his adjusted Precataclysmic map, which he introduced as follows: Foreword About Precataclysmic WorldmapInconsistencies between canon references saying the Known World was under the arctic icecap before the Great Rain of Fire (BC 3000) and the Precataclysmic Outer World map found in 

In April 2008, Átila made a thread at the MMB about Simone’s demographics project at the Italian MMB. The discussion developed into a debate about the position of the pre-cataclysmic North Pole, and Simone posted this map in one of his replies. Here’s how he introduced it: Mystara’s pre-cataclysm projection used by LoZompatore in maps like this was done using an appropriate software with which he managed to obtain the “right” (according to most canon) position of Mystara’s landmasses before the GRoF.

This was the second of two maps of the southern tip of the Isle of Dawn that Simone posted to the MMB alongside a gazetteer in April 2008. While its pair concentrated on geography, this one dealt with the political features of the region. For more on the project and the maps in general, see the post for the other map.

In April 2008, Simone posted an in-progress gazetteer of the southern tip of the Isle of Dawn — complete with two maps of the area, which he named Caerdania. He explained in his post to the MMB: Caerdania is the area that includes the southernmost tip of the Isle of Dawn, south and east of Hennonia. The region, today, is better known for hosting the County of Furmenglaive and the Barony of Caerdwicca, two important dominions of the Thyatian Empire, but in older times it has been the seat of an independent kingdom and its culture has peculiar traits in respect of other peoples of the Isle of Dawn.

This map had me puzzled for a long time. Bruce Heard used it as a base for his excellent climate map in 2013, with the Italian climate band labels edited out. The map was clearly Michele Carpita’s wonderful enhanced Brun and Alphatia map, but with its straight line for polar ice packs it wasn’t based on any version I knew of.

In 2025 I posted Michele’s Brun and Alphatia blank map from September 2009. I also had a Mystara climate map using a very similar base map, but Michele said that it wasn’t his work, and I was unable to track down the original source at the time. Then in September 2026 I discovered some backups of the old Italian MMB at the Wayback Machine — including the thread with the Mystara climate map, which turned out to be Simone Neri’s modification of Michele’s original map.

This map was the pair of Simone’s Known World Geographical map, both of which he created for his Demografia Mystarana book. They were variations on his Known World, 24 miles per hex Blank map. See that post for an overview of the creation of the map and his decisions therein. As with the geographical version, this map had all of its labels in Italian as it appeared in the PDF for…

Simone created this map for his Demografia Mystarana book, based on his new Known World, 24 miles per hex Blank map. For an overview of the map and its creation, see the post for the blank version of the map. He made two variants for the book, of which this was the geographical map. It concentrated on toponyms, putting the terrain and its labels centre stage.

For his Demografia Mystarana book, Simone put together a new take on the classic Known World, 24 mile per hex map. This was the blank version of the map; he also made two labelled versions for his book, both of which have their labels in Italian. He explained the ideas behind the map when he posted it to the MMB, in March 2007:

Simone introduced this culture from his own campaign towards the end of his seminal Norwold from the Italian MMB thread. First he posted an article, then he expanded it and added a map, too. In his own words: The Nainartas are a female culture that rule an alliance of barbarian tribes from a small community located high in the Goddess’ Diadem.

Mirroring his original 1.3 vs. 1.3 political division, Simone created a politically-focused counterpart for his version 1.7 Norwold map. If you’re wondering why this one was labelled 1.5 while its contemporary was 1.7, see the comments on timing in the posts for versions 1.5 and 1.7. To summarise, I believe that initially they were indeed both labelled 1.5 when they were first posted to the MMB in November 2006.

In September 2026, Emma posted an art update to DeviantArt for her Azcan Empire map from three years before. She explained the changes as follows: The two main changes from the v1 map are a) I changed the roads, trails, and sea routes to follow gentle curves rather than straight lines, and b) I redid the hex art for the jungle (including light jungle and hills with jungle).

Here it is: Simone Neri’s famous Norwold map. Forged on the Italian MMB, later tempered on the MMB, and once finalised, left as a wonderful resource for the community. The history of this map is rather involved and even a little convoluted, but I’ll try my best to sort it out and explain it. As I mentioned in the post for the previous…

After his Denagoth migration maps in early 2006, Simone returned mid-year with a new map: the town of Threshold and its surroundings in northern Karameikos. Again, he posted it to the Mystara Message Board, where he commented: Days ago, I made a map of Threshold region, based on all (to my knowledge) canon sources. Here’s the map; I apologize for the odd scale, but I simply used a x3 zoom on the GAZ1 map.

The third iteration of Simone’s Norwold mostly involved minor tweaks to dominion sizes and positions. The main revision was in the south. In Simone’s own words (translated by Google Translate): ... guided by your suggestions, I’ve permanently removed Eastern March from Norwold and slightly reorganized the southern domains (otherwise we’d have been left with a hole). After this map, the conversation moved on to demographics — Simone’s primary interest.

Just two days after sharing his first pass at Norwold’s dominions, Simone was back with version 2. He explained in his post on the Italian MMB (translation via Google Translate, with apologies): So, gentlemen, here’s the new map with the locations modified according to your instructions and a few of my own suggestions. I’d like to hear some opinions; in particular, I’m still very unsure about the location of the Valley of Two Lakes (Maltus Fharo).

As I noted previously, with the toponyms largely done, Simone next moved to the onerous task of sorting through Norwold’s surprisingly many dominions. He introduced his first pass at this with the following comment (translation via Google Translate as always): Let’s move on to the placement of the fiefdoms. I’ll start with those whose locations we have some clue about, and then move on to the others.

Like its predecessor, Simone’s second ethnographical map of Norwold was another rough map to illustrate the ongoing conversation on the Italian MMB. He posted it in early May 2006, in the midst of a detailed discussion about revising the names of Norwold cultures. It provided a nice general overview of his thinking at the time. He described it in his post as follows (translation via Google Translate, with apologies as usual):

Just a few days after posting his first labelled version, Norwold 1.4, Simone shared an updated 1.5 map with even more labels. He also incorporated revisions that Michele and others had proposed on the Italian MMB. Among Michele’s suggestions were the change from White Sea to Norzee; the naming of Heldland after the Joshuan’s Almanac river in that region; and a general agreement to using fan-created names where official maps were blank.

This map followed directly on from Simone’s 1.3 map and his first ethnographic map of Norwold, in late April 2006. It was his first pass at a properly labelled map, and he added a lot of geographic and political names. Although these remained a fraction of what the final map would eventually get, nonetheless it had taken a long discussion to get this far, and it was a major achievement for Simone and his collaborators on the Italian MMB.

This map was a work-in-progress step in the development of Simone’s Norwold map. He posted it in response to Mariano “Morgoth” Comense’s marked up version of his version 1.3 political map, during involved discussions in his Norwold demographics thread on the Italian MMB. Simone explained (translation by Google Chrome, with apologies for any errors): I finally had some time to get my hands on the Norwold map again.

In March 2009, Simone shared an English translation of his MGAZ1 The Central Altan Tepes PDF. He included this detailed map of the area, and even provided it as a separate download. As he explained in his post at The Piazza: I've managed to finish the English translation (and pdf version) of my "Central Altan Tepes mini-gaz", which I wrote a couple of years ago as the setting of an Italian adventure written by a friend of mine…

“When the gale finally ended, we found ourselves approximately seven days normal sailing distance due south out of Specularum, in the Thanegioth Archipelago. We replenished our supplies, patched up the ship, and traded our remaining goods at native villages along the shores of several islands. Some villages were friendly, but others were hostile and the natives attacked on sight. I suspect the hostile villages were filled with cannibals.

This map comes from Simone’s Demografia Mystarana Norwold thread on the Italian MMB. He posted it right after his 8 mile per hex conversion of Vyolstagrad, proposing four possible placements for the dominion on the larger Norwold map. Before looking at the placements, he summarised the known facts about Vyolstagrad from CM4 as follows (translation from Italian via Google Chrome — apologies for any mistakes):

On the Italian MMB, Simone posted a series of threads for his Demografia Mystarana project. Norwold was his 22nd such thread, and he made his first post in March 2006 with his blank Norwold 1.3 map. From there, he and the other members of the forum began to work through adding political boundaries, settlements, dominions, and so on. This map was part of that process.

Simone created this map in 2006 to solve an infamous problem with Mystaran cartography that I have taken to calling the Norwold Conundrum. In short, X1’s Known World, CM1’s Norwold, and X11’s Wendar & Denagoth maps do not fit together well... or in fact at all, in the case of the latter two. He and Michele Carpita collaborated on the design on the Italian MMB.

After his Denagoth migration maps in early 2006, Simone returned mid-year with a new map: the town of Threshold and its surroundings in northern Karameikos. Again, he posted it to the Mystara Message Board, where he commented: I made a map of Threshold region, based on all (to my knowledge) canon sources. Here’s the map; I apologize for the odd scale, but I simply used a x3 zoom on the GAZ1 map.

This was the last of Simone’s five maps tracking the history of the Denagoth Plateau, bringing the story close to the situation in X11. For more on the series as a whole, see the post for the first map, Denagoth 1750-950 BC. The subtitle is The Time of the Shadow Lord, and the map shows a devastating all-out attack on the Kingdom of Geffronell, along with the expanding Shadow Lord’s domains.

The fourth of Simone’s five-part series of migration maps for Denagoth covered the pre-modern era, from 690 to 856 AC. You can read an overview of the whole series in the post for the first part, Denagoth 1750-950 BC. Part four brought the Kingdom of Denagoth up to its dissolution, with events gradually moving the state of things closer to their 1000 AC situation.

Simone’s third Denagoth migration map covered the late 7th century AC, following on from the last which dealt with the earlier part of that century. For more information on the set as a whole, see Denagoth 1750-950 BC. The time period covered here was near the beginning of the history outlined in X11, and adapted by Marco Dalmonte and Shawn Stanley into a cohesive timeline.

This is the second in Simone’s set of migration maps for the Denagoth Plateau. For an overview of the whole set, see Denagoth 1750-950 BC. The subject of this map was 630 AC; there was a rather large jump in the dates between the first and second maps in the series. Here, the main subject was the early years of the human realms of the plateau, and their pressures with the elves to the southwest in Lothenar and Geffronell.

Simone Neri made his first posts in the English language Mystara community on the MMB in mid-2005. I remember him contributing to my Wendar and then later Darokin Provinces threads, and he always made very informed comments. He was also heavily involved in the Italian community, and often referred to works from there. The first maps he shared on the MMB were a set of migration maps showing the Denagoth Plateau.

Presenting for the first time: Emma’s completed full map of Patera in Equirectangular projection, at 8 miles per hex. Thanks, Emma, for allowing me the honour of posting this for you. Even the lower resolution preview was too large for DeviantArt, so here it is. Note that the version below is a 100 DPI preview of the full map. It’s still rather huge even at that resolution, but the full, 300 DPI version linked to below is even larger.

Emma did something rather special for her Karameikos map. She posted a great explanation at The Piazza: This map covers the area of Karameikos from GAZ1. However, it’s clearly not a simple “near-replica”. I had long said I wasn’t going to make a map of Karameikos, partly because every Mystaran cartographer does that one, and partly because once I had gotten past the initial learning curve of how to make maps, there seemed little point in doing Karameikos unless I could add something knew.

With the full Patera, 8 mile per hex map approaching completion and the North Pole v2 map posted, Emma turned her attention to the South Pole. Although she marked it as a draft, work-in-progress version, she had taken it to quite a high level of completion by this point. This map gave a tantalising first glimpse at the extent of Emma’s work on Patera’s nations and their languages.

A couple of days after sharing her Patera North Polar v2 map, Emma posted the full Myoshima part of her Patera, 8 mile per hex world map. She explained in a post at The Piazza: This is an extract of a larger world map of Patera, covering the core region of the Empire of Myoshima. For technical reasons (file size of exported image), I'm not able to export the entire eight-mile-scale world map in one image.

By May 2026, Emma was far along in her Patera, 8 mile per hex mapping project. She first posted an update to the North Pole map, then the almost finished map in June. She explained in her post at DeviantArt: Update: All terrain physical features completed. Corrected longitude line labels (east and west had been mixed up). To do: Some settlements need to be named.

The second of three maps Emma did on the side while working on her Patera, 8 miles per hex map, this one focused on X9’s original version of the Savage Coast. She explained in a post at The Piazza: Made using Worldographer and an extended version of Thorf's hex art. This is a near-replica of the wilderness map from TSR's Module X9: The Savage Coast.

In early 2026, Emma took a break from her Patera project to create a few more replica maps. This was the first of these: a reproduction and colourisation of Wrath of the Immortals’ Alphatian Neatharum map. She explained a few things about the map in her post at The Piazza: Near-replica map from the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set.

With her 8 mile per hex map of Patera well underway, Emma took a detour to create separate maps of the polar regions. She explained the reason for doing this in a work-in-progress preview at DeviantArt as follows: WORK IN PROGRESS! DRAFT VERSION! Patera, North Polar region. One hex equals eight miles. Previous versions of the Patera maps have been in a equirectangular (aka plate careé) projection, which greatly distorts distances at the north and south pole.

In October 2025, Emma took a break from working on her Patera, 8 mile per hex map to post this map of Cab Davidson’s Maganshire in Norwold. Cab’s campaign has been running for many years, with extensive development of his version of Norwold, centred around Maganshire southwest of Oceansend. He has produced a lot of material for it, much of which he has shared and can be found at the Vaults of Pandius.

After posting her finished map of Patera at 24 miles per hex in September 2025, it wasn’t long before Emma returned with a new development for Mystara’s invisible moon: the first preview of an 8 mile per hex map. As with the 24 mile per hex map, Emma chose Kompor-Thap to be the first area she posted. Between the two maps, she had also looked into solving the problems with the 24 mile per hex map — primarily the fact that it didn’t include enough terrain to cover a full globe.

Following her Kompor-Thap work in progress in February 2025, Emma shared the first version of her finished 24 mile per hex map of Patera a few months later, in June. At The Piazza she commented: I finally pushed myself to name every last town and city. This map builds on the work of previous cartographers to provide the most detailed map of this moon to date.

Emma posted this map in May 2025, though she noted that she had made it some time previously. It was incomplete due to an error in the alignment of Alphatia — very likely caused by Dawn of the Emperors’ Alphatia and Isle of Dawn maps, which had Alphatia out of sync between the two maps. She explained fully in her post at DeviantArt:

At the end of February 2025, Emma shared a small snippet of something entirely new: the Pateran nation of Kompor-Thap at 24 miles per hex, with larger 72 mile hexes also marked. She commented in a thread at The Piazza: A small fragment of my current mapping project. Made using Worldographer and an expanded version of Thorf's hex art. This map is based on earlier work by LoZompatore (Michele Carpita).

Emma returned to mapping in 2025 with this map: a “What if?” map of the Five Shires. She explained in a comment at The Piazza: The Burnt Shires. A palette-shifted version of Mystara's Five Shires, with a Dark Sun aesthetic. Made using Worldographer and an expanded version of Thorf's hex art. To make the map, she took her Five Shires map…

GAZ14’s map was an interesting one, because it built in a major flaw: the plateau was far too small compared with the 24 mile per hex maps. This created problems when trying to join Sind to the Known World, as a large sliver of terrain was missing. Andrew Theisen was the first to create a fixed map of Atruaghin, way back in 2004.

After a six month break, Emma returned to her replica Gazetteer maps with GAZ4’s Kingdom of Ierendi. As usual, she mainly stuck to the source map, incorporating her own revised hex art and palette. The farmlands and grasslands were her own addition. She posted some thoughts about the map at The Piazza: There's a huge number of volcanoes. I'm guessing it's because volcanoes are hard to explain away as never having been marked on a map before, and having lots of them means that if the GM needs a nearby volcano to make an adventure work, there's one not too far away.

Emma’s first map of 2024, following on from her Thyatis map of late the previous year, was a replica of GAZ2’s Ylaruam. She explained her concept for the map in her post at DeviantArt: The Emirates of Ylaruam. near-replica map of Ylaruam from the gazetteer, incorporating the underground region as depicted within the gazeteer and a fanon placement for the lost city of Cynidicea.

Having completed her versions of the HWR series poster maps, Emma next turned her attention back to the Known World with this map of Thyatis. She made it as a replica of the original Dawn of the Emperors map, with the only substantive change being the use of her own colour palette. Fan-made Map by Emma Rome (November 2023) Dawn of the Emperors Empire of Thyatis, 8 miles per hex, by Emma Rome, November 2023