The Great Rift

[Diamond]

I was bored today and just wanted to do something for fun, so I came up with this, a portion of a continent split by some ancient cataclysm, forming a sea rift in the middle. Too dangerous for regular sea-borne trade and travel due to unpredictable currents, storms, etc, lighter-than-air travel is used widely - hot air balloons, primitive zeppelins and biplanes.

Here's some preliminary work on the layout. I'm not sure how I'm going to go with this yet, either a 'painterly' style or more atlas-like. I guess I'll just have to see what develops.

[tilt]

Great beginning - but a single thing made me think - if ships can't pass due to storms, can hot air ballons? Even painterly hot air ballons?

[Diamond]

Probably with difficulty... I guess I should've mentioned that in most places, the Rift is a mile or more deep, and acts like a funnel, combined with a pressure differential, makes the weather down at sea level very unpleasant, while above it's not quite as bad, allowing air traffic. Better?

[tilt]

lots - then an airbridge will be in order - nay a must!

[Diamond]

I was thinking about adding in a massive bridge or two at different points - maybe relics left over from an earlier age. We're talking bridges so long and wide that they're their own independent countries.

[tilt]

then you need us Danes, we're good at bridges

Connection between Sealand and Fyn 6790 m ~ 4,2 miles [PIC]
Connection between Denmark and Sweden 15900 m ~ 9,9 miles [PIC] I cross this one when I drive to work
Connection between Denmark and Germany 19000 m ~ 11,8 miles (being built) [PIC]

All of those length does however cover some landbased stretches, so its not all "high-bridges"

[Sapiento]

Cool idea!

[Diamond]

then you need us Danes, we're good at bridges

Well, I live in the San Francisco area, and we've got a few bridges here too. Including the San Mateo Bridge, the 25th longest in the world.

Cool idea!

Thanks!

[jwbjerk]

Interesting start.

[Diamond]

Put in the mountains and started adding rivers. As usual, forests are going to kill me. I think I may just use a real subtle green pattern/highlight in forested areas so they don't overwhelm everything else like they usually do...