Humanity has always been curious about the unknown. This curiosity pushes her to explore the world. The discoveries brought with them the need to put down on paper and describe new areas. So as to know what and how much has already been discovered and to be able to move around in the field more easily. This is how cartography was born. It’s similar with the Gothic fandom, which fell in love with the second part of the series while exploring the territories of the island of Khorinis. This fascination led fans to imagine what might lie behind the mighty mountain ranges that mark the map’s borders. Unfortunately, the game’s creators didn’t provide answers to these questions, so it is the fans who, based on incomplete information and their own imagination, create their interpretations. Here is an overview of the results of their work.
Gothic lore
In Gothic 1 we get a quite limited area of Mine Valley, the boundaries of which are marked by a magical barrier. Additionally, it is not known whether Khorinis is an island or part of the continent. In the second part, the creators provide us with much more information about the geographical space, because we learn about three lands that are the basis for considerations regarding the shape and size of the entire island. We also receive rudimentary information from NPCs, telling us about the Far South, which we won’t visit.
Additionally, the ZEN borders marked by mountain ranges and Jarkendar, isolated by them, suggest that the island is a mountainous area with lowlands where people could have settled.
One of the Gothicpedia users1 with the nickname TenKtórySzukałSamegoSiebie tried to arrange all three maps above so that it made the most sense, and then marked the base area of the island and described everything. In the blog entry Gothic II – Pełna mapa wyspy Khorinis według mnie we can learn more about this study. Additionally, he added a map of the “Valley of Death” for which he used the Valley of the Ancestors as a visualization. According to him, he placed it there because adding the terrain was planned in the second expansion to Gothic 2, but as we know, the plans were abandoned. The map itself was created by modders for such modifications as: Global Mod, Destiny, Destiny – Epilogue and Roots of Evil.
Polish content creator Marucha535 made detailed aerial maps in the Reality Capture 1.4 program of three playable parts of ZEN, in order to determine the size of the world of Gothic 2 Night of the Raven. After uploading the maps, he outlined them and calculated their areas in the QGiS map program. Then, in order to develop the possible shape and size of the full island, he used a photo with the approximate location of three ZENs on Gothicpedia as a base2. During the process, he made some transformations to make everything fit. This is what the effects look like.
There are also interactive maps showing players where they can find specific resources scattered throughout ZEN. If you are a powergamer by nature and want to verify that you have cleared the map of everything that could be found, we can recommend the interactive Gothic II NotR – Map Realm by Lorthiz.
We can understand why the developers didn’t create a complete map of the Khorinis island.Jarkendar was officially forgotten, and placing it on a map owned by the inhabitants of the port city of Khorinis could seriously disrupt the plot. Therefore, we have to rely on fan creativity in this matter. So let’s see examples of the effects of their efforts.
Roleplay
In role-playing games, both online and paper-based, creating world maps is a common practice. This helps players better visualize the gameplay. Here are some examples of such maps:
The world map was developed for the Roleplay server on the G2O platform, Echa Wojny: Faraan.The planned diplomacy system means that apart from the main island, where the game takes place, other inhabited parts of the world are also important for the game. The island of Khorinis is also visible on the map. Because it does not play a greater role in the plot than other areas outside Faraan, the creators didn’t particularly focus on its appearance.
Maps from World of Gothic
The World of Gothic website is full of fan content. Among them, there are maps of both Khorinis itself and larger areas where our famous island is only a small part. These types of interpretations may raise serious doubts, but they help RPG players better understand the game world.Drakia deserves special attention here, as it is an attempt by fans to guess what the land in the south of the island could be called.
Karta GeoGRAfika
Among the wide range of popular science channels that also publish materials related to the Gothic game series, the GeoGRAfika Card deserves special attention3. Its creator translates his extensive knowledge of geographical sciences acquired during his studies into discussing a variety of issues contained in games. He spices it all up with humor, thus transmitting knowledge in a much more easily digestible way. His original rendition of the Khorinis map had a wide impact in the fandom. No wonder, after all, we are dealing here with truly professional workmanship of the highest standard.
In addition to the hypsometric map of Khorinis, we also received two materials in which the author explains what guided him when creating it. He also describes how he imagines the mysterious “Far South” where Sylvio and his band of mercenaries come from.
other
Maps that are a purely artistic expression of players’ love for the game world. Their workmanship is so good that it would be a shame not to show them.
Widelands
CalamityArtist666
We hope that we managed to make the mysterious world of Gothica a little more transparent. If you have discovered something interesting, please visit our Discorda, where you can share your observations and impressions on topics related to Piranha Bytes games and more!
