ORIGINAL CARTOGRAPHER · PENNYMORES
The world was drawn with a feather quill.
Before readers could travel through Fonde, Chaim Holtjer had to give it coastlines, mountain ranges, kingdoms, roads, hidden places, and a sense of history. He drew the commissioned Pennymores world map by hand—using ink and an actual feather quill.
THE CRAFT BEHIND THE WORLD
A map made the same way magic is written.
In Pennymores, words have power. Quills matter. Marks on a page can change the world. That made Chaim’s traditional process feel especially right: a fantasy world built one physical line at a time.
His work began with pencil outlines, then moved into hand-inked coastlines, mountains, forests, cities, labels, landmarks, and ornament. The irregularity of the line is part of the map’s character. You can see the decisions, patience, and care in it.
THE MAKING OF FONDE
From blank paper to a navigable world.
Chaim’s process photographs let us follow the map as it grows—not through a shortcut, but through hundreds of small, deliberate marks.
Coastlines and names
The shape of Fonde appears as shorelines and place names begin to anchor the world.
Mountains and forests
Repeated pen strokes turn open space into terrain—a geography readers can imagine crossing.
The Kingdom of Everly
Roads, rivers, borders, and settlements give the kingdom geography and history.
Landmarks with stories inside them
The Everly Amphitheatre and other tiny drawings reward a closer look—and suggest adventures beyond the page.
THE COMPLETED ARTIFACT
The tools remain in the story.
The finished ink drawing rests beside the feather quill and ink that made it. The photograph preserves something a clean digital file cannot: the scale of the paper, the physical tools, and the handwork behind every place.
THE WORLD OF FONDE
A hand-drawn world, finished for readers.
After the drawing was complete, Chaim scanned the artwork, assembled the scans digitally, made requested refinements, and applied the final parchment treatment. The result is the canonical Pennymores world map.
Original Pennymores world map and hand-drawn cartography by Chaim Holtjer.
Meet the cartographer
Chaim Holtjer is a Netherlands-based fantasy cartographer and writer who specializes in detailed world and city maps. His commissioned work gave Fonde a physical geography—and gave Pennymores a remarkable handmade artifact at the center of its world.
VIEW CHAIM HOLTJER’S PROFILE →
Process photographs by Chaim Holtjer, supplied during the commissioned mapmaking work. Original Fiverr watermarks are retained where present as part of the documentary record.