The Bridgeland Maps are a set of five maps made by the Foundation's Media division, showing a map of the Bridgeland – or Bíshkaí, if you prefer its Bridgian name.
They are released in November every year since their start: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
(Yes, this means the Bridgeland Maps were made before the Foundation even started.)
Base β in the 2020 Bridgeland Map.
2020 Bridgeland Map
The 2020 Bridgeland Map was the first of the Maps, releasing before the start of the Foundation.
In fact, it was the first to include “Bridge Base” (added around halfway though its development) as a base.
It was unpopular with both its creator and receivers because of:
the use of “handwritten” numbers (makes it quite hard to read, let alone inconsistent),
the separation of all names into keys (using numbers twice, for regions and bases),
the imprecise scale (particularly in Fälea and Rintae),
the lack of geographical pointers (only having bases, region-boundaries, and “towers”), and
the unclear nature of bases (all green areas are bases, but this was not stated on the map).
However, the inclusion of sector-maps onto separate areas is still one of its strong points – no other map
has labelled sectors (yet).
The 2020 Bridgeland Map did not include Outer regions or Dthenden (Bridge Base was barely a thing, so I
don't blame it).
Base β in the 2021 Bridgeland Map.
2021 Bridgeland Map
The 2021 Bridgeland Map was the second of the Maps, releasing just after the start of the Foundation.
Despite that, though, it does not contain any reference to the Bridge Base Foundation.
The 2021 Map was the first to contain Greek letter–codes for bases (generally in founding order).
It fixed the handwritten numbers issue: three-letter base-codes were used instead and regions' names were
put directly onto the map.
The inclusion of Outer regions (like Deep Forest and Great Fernland), along with Dthenden, also helped to
improve upon the previous Map.
However, the use of bright colours for all the regions –
red,
yellow,
green (for bases),
cyan, and
blue –
made it worse to look at.
It did include small sector-boundaries for all regions (the 2020 Map only had some with sectors).
The geographical accuracy was slightly better, but still failed around Picnic region (what's now western
Entébia).
Base β in the 2022 Bridgeland Map.
2022 Bridgeland Map
The 2022 Bridgeland Map was the third of the Maps, releasing during the Foundation's first time in Base β.
It was the first map to contain a reference to the Foundation.
The major (and I mean major) improvement over the previous Maps was the use of colour to
denote types of terrain: plains, sparse trees, dense trees, bushes, asphalt, buildings, etc.
Also important was the display of trees and the more accurate distance measurements (a.k.a. stealing from
satellite imagery).
Please note that most names were still the same as in the 2020 Map, with only a few base-names changing.
The key was much better though, with Greek letters being first and foremost to denote bases, and full region
names being on the map – no more S.W. Shrubland or S.E. Orchard…
All this, along with the greatness of the Foundation at the time, lead to it being received much more highly than the previous two Maps.
Base β in the 2023 Bridgeland Map.
2023 Bridgeland Map
The 2023 Bridgeland Map was the fourth Map to be released by the foundation, made during the Foundation's return to Bridgehaven.
It was announced at BridgeCon 2023.
It was a major change in style from the previous Map, with colour being stripped out altogether in favour of a more stylistic map.
(Though I guess the 2022 Map could be described as an equal change in style.)
An important part of this stylism was the complete removal of region boundaries, so that more geographical information could be displayed without cluttering the map.
It also showed the Outer regions with full detail; previously, they were just grey areas with no information besides their names.
Please note that, with this map, many region- and base-names were changed. Examples include:
West Plains → West Downs
South-East Orchard → Far Orchard
South-West Shrubland → Near Orchard
Main Back Forest Base → Greenridge Base
East Plains Hideout → Junction Base
Orange Animation Base → Orange Tree Base
Base β in the 2024 Bridgeland Map.
2024 Bridgeland Map
The 2024 Bridgeland Map is the most recent map to be released by the Foundation, being announced at BridgeCon 2024.
It returned colour to the Map, once again showing different terrain-types differently, while keeping the curved text and Outer region–display from the 2023 Map.
Region-borders were also returned alongside the new classification of ankaía – “super-regions”; from the Bridgian anghɐy.
The 2024 Map was intended to be definitive, and so there were even more region- and base-name–changes, such as:
