Behind the Complete Map of Tamriel (Patreon)

I started this map in 2014. The most comprehensive map at that time was Arthmodeus' masterpiece. It was a thorough geographic and political piece, and served us well for many years. By 2014, however, and even more so now, it was woefully outdated, relying on Arena information for most of its geography and placenames. It also had a number of errors from an incorrect reading of the West Tamriel map, such as "Hnes Rax" in place of Hew's Bane, and some very speculative information presented as facts (such as the distance to Akavir or shape of Pyandonea). Other maps mostly suffered from the same set of problems.

So I decided to make my own. The very first thing I did is to lay out what exactly I wanted to acomplish:

• The map had to incorporate all the latest information about Tamriel, both in terms of in-game chronology (taking place during the time of Skyrim, rather than the late 3rd era) and in terms of the real world. I made the decision to exclude any Arena information that was not collaborated in later sources. Most names from that game are not only out of step with modern naming conventions, but also end up being ignored when the modern games cover those areas. 
• The map had to be easy to update and correct. I wanted this to be a living document, especially since Elder Scrolls Online frequently adds new areas. I created it in Adobe Illustrator, a vector software which allows everything to be edited, moved around, and scaled with greater ease and precision than pixel-based editors. 
• The map had to be easy to read and understand. This meant prioritizing clean contours and simple fonts over beauty and visual detail. While I love a map that looks like it belongs inside the universe, they are often harder to read than something like Google Maps. 

With the ethos decided, I set about making the thing.

I chose the Anthology map as my starting point for terrain and city locations. It matches up almost exactly to the PGE3 map as wells as the in-game maps from the last three games, and is the latest official, lore-based map of Tamriel. The game maps for Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim were overlaid and used for additional detail. ESO, however, posed problems. Its in-game world map (red) is drastically different from the anthology map (blue). This gets even worse when we get down to comparing individual regions, as illustrated by Hew's Bane when overlaid with the Anthology outline. 

To account for this, as well as for the huge city-to-land ratio in ESO, I had to do a lot of stretching and warping of the maps from that game. ESO provided me with a lot of names and waterways, as well as a fair bit of coastal detail... but wasn't really utilized directly due to how much editing had to happen to match things up. 

There was another point of contention in the city names and locations. When things conflicted, I went either with the most recent (like Sharnhelm, taken from the Anthology map) or with the most frequent (like Elinhir, from everywhere except the Anthology map, which spells it Blinhir). Conflicting locations likewise prioritized the Anthology map. Naris, for example, is located to the west of Mournhold in ESO, but to the south-west in every other map. 

Resolving conflicts like this is an imperfect science, especially when trying to keep things in tact relative to geological features like rivers. In the case of Mournhold and Narsis, I ended up moving them both closer to the center of the province and relocating Narsis to a south-westerly position. This is one of those things that I might revisit in the future. 

There were also other sources used for the geography and settlements in each province. The distinction between "large settlement" and "small settlement" came entirely from the Anthology/PGE3 maps - if a city appeared large in the game it was featured in, but wasn't marked down as a major settlement in either of those two maps, it got a small settlement marker instead. 

• Skyrim - Entirely based on TESV. 
• Morrowind - Vvardenfell was based on TES3, the mainland on a combination of heavily skewed ESO and this pre-TES3 concept map. The Red Year was also accounted for with Blacklight being the new capital, several cities being destroyed, and a large crater where Vivec used to be. 
• Black Marsh - Its northern bit is from ESO, the rest, from the Anthology map. The name Oliis Bay is from the Greg Keys novels. 
• Elsweyr (Anequina and Pelletine) - The north-west corner and Khenarthi's Roost are from ESO, the rest from the Anthology and PGE maps. Its division into two provinces rather than one is a 4th era change. 
• Valenwood - Recreated entirely from ESO. A notable oddity here is the Xylo river. In ESO, "Xylo" is the same river as the one I've labeled, but in PGE3, that name is used for the river between Valenwood and Elsweyr, instead.
• Summerset Isles - Auridon is entirely from ESO. The landscape of the main island is wholly from the Anthology map, but its labeling comes from a couple different places. The south of the island is extrapolated from datamined information of a scrapped ESO version of the island, while its northern parts come from the West Tamriel map. The placing of the datamined locations is, of course, highly speculative.
• Hammerfell - The north is primarily from ESO, while much of the rest of the province references the West Tamriel map. 
• High Rock - This one is a messy patchwork of ESO (for geography and some small settlement locations, Daggerfall locations (those that were mentioned in lore - TES2 had too many settlements to add to the map), and even a bit from Arena in the form of Dunlain, which was referenced in TESV. 
• Cyrodiil - Almost entirely taken from TESIV. Ione, the only addition, came from the Greg Keys novels and is speculatively placed based on them.  

Since I am not a Bethesda employee and this is not an official map, I have to address some of its speculative elements. I'd love to get these officially settled one day, but haven't had luck so far.

• The border between Morrowind and Black Marsh - we know that the Argonians raided all the way up into the Telvanni isles, but did not make significant territorial gains. I chose to give them a fair bit of land in the south, but no captured cities. 
• The status of Morrowind. The Great War says that Morrowind is part of the Empire, but the Dunmer of Solstheim don't seem to treat it as such. I included it in the Empire but consider it only a nominal province, with minimal oversight or support from the capital. 
• The border between Valenwood and Elsweyr - we don't know anything about this, so I just placed it roughly in the middle. 
• The location of Orsinium - TESV says that Orisinium has been rebuilt on the border of Hammerfell and Skyrim, but we've got no idea where. I've given it a province capital marker, but we also don't know if it really has any land outside itself. 

Finally, I would be remiss not to thank all the folks who have helped out with this by pointing out omissions, suggesting improvements, helping with research, and pointing out pesky typos. You guys are a great big help and very much appreciated. If anyone sees any issues with the current map, please do let me know!