The Bay of the Maelstrom

The Bay of the Maelstrom is the primary setting of Legacy of Tides and Sorrows, a fantasy novel by Brazilian author Jana Bianchi and a semifinalist in TikTok’s Livros do Futuro literary competition. Set in an alternate world inspired by colonial Brazil, the setting blends adventure, mistery, political intrigue, romance, and a distinctly South American sensibility.

The map draws heavily from 16th- and 17th-century Brazilian colonial cartography, incorporating period-inspired ornamentation, historical visual references, and a deliberately naïve graphic language reminiscent of early exploratory maps. The result seeks to evoke the atmosphere of a chart produced by explorers and settlers at the edge of a still largely unknown world.