That's pretty gorgeous so far, and a cool setting to boot.
Was it intentional that one of the underwater/oceanic ridges south of your finished continent looks like a little man?
That's pretty gorgeous so far, and a cool setting to boot.
Was it intentional that one of the underwater/oceanic ridges south of your finished continent looks like a little man?
Yes, that was intentional. I have an idea (a vague one) of what he/she/it is. I have quite a bit floating around in my head for the setting itself; it's all mostly chaotic right now. I'm trying to get it all written down in some fashion. My plan is to actually create a unique flora and fauna for the world as well. The scale of the map isn't global, my idea is that this is the main concentration of land mass on the world, and the majority of the rest is ocean with scattered volcanic islands.Originally Posted by Diamond
Another idea I had for the world is that it originally had sparse vegetation and that humanity was in the process of terraforming the planet when the collapse occurred, so there are remnants of this process across the planet. These places are called SEED forests, and each have unique mutative affects upon the Earth species that live therein. There are some areas of indigenous vegetation, but it is widespread. Most of the world is desert. Also, humanity was not the only species of sentient creature upon the planet when the collapse occurred, so others are there also. The planet also had no indigenous sentient life, but there were barbaric species that had colonized the planet in the long ago past and also found themselves trapped. The nature of the collapse of the galactic civilization is unknown. The people of the planet only know, or knew, as this was a few thousand years ago, that one day contact just stopped.
Here is another sample of the progress. I am using a style that Tear (a member of these boards) used in creating the map, but I'm doing some variations of it.
Thanks for the comments, everyone. Here is a picture of the whole map's progress so far:
I've changed the name of the world to "Metis" and I'm writing a rough history of the world. I thought I would share for anyone interested. There may be some inconsistencies, if you notice any please point them out.
History of Metis
The world is called Metis, after the Titan that was the mother of Athena, and was said to carry the son that would overthrow Zeus in the cycle of succession. Metis was swallowed by Zeus to prevent this from happening. Metis is also associated with wisdom and the Renaissance. The planet Metis was a beautiful world, like Earth, covered in blue oceans that from space would sparkle in the light of its crimson sun like a deep sapphire, but the lifeforms that lived in those deep waters and those that dwelled upon the barren continents were unlike those men had known on Earth or any other planet encountered in the known galaxy.
The life that lived upon the planet was deadly beyond imagining. The planet, despite its beauty, was a barren and unforgiving place, but something drew man to it, something he could not name. As the first explorers arrived upon its surface they found the air breathable, and deep underground they found drinkable water. The water in the vast oceans was not salinized like Earth’s, instead something else infected them. The first men who drank from the water were driven mad, not immediately, but over the course of several years. Some would say their minds were no longer their own, and they were possessed by something else. Many lessons, such as this one, were learned during man’s first years on Metis, but inevitably, like so many planets before it, she would succumb to the determination of the advancement of human civilization.
Man built the great city of Aod on her surface and planted enormous machines within her called Systematic Ecological Engendering Devices (S.E.E.D.’s) that would begin transforming the world into a place better suited for human life, but, at some point during those dark and ancient centuries, disaster struck man, and this plan would never be completely realized.
I: The Abandonment
Of the time before The Abandonment little is known. Those were times when The Lost City of Aod was populated by a billion men and women and the stars were charted like islands in the sea of night and men sailed that black sea, but those are days lost and now Aod lies abandoned and forsaken. No one knows what happened exactly. One day all communication with humanity’s empire ceased, and those with command of the Night Vessels left Metis in search of news of what happened, but never returned. It is thought somewhere across the far and now forgotten breadth of the empire of man some calamity spread through the echelons of man’s society striking down that civilization, and leaving Metis, and planets like her, to drift alone within the gloom of the far reaches of the galaxy.
Years passed and the citizens of Aod starved and riots broke out upon the streets of the great city and famine and war and disease were known like sleep.
Historians do not refer to the collapse of society that came as a “fall” or “destruction;” instead they call it “The Abandonment” as it is believed that humanity at-large abandoned Metis to its own fate. A fate that consisted of the technology upon which so many lives depended failing when the means of replacement for parts was not available; a fate that consisted of men, women, and children going unto an alien world that was hostile and unwelcoming to them; a fate that became even more dark when those aliens with whom man had allied and lived alongside him realized that they were just as alone now as humanity; a fate that many before them had seemingly experienced upon Metis for man and his allies were not alone. Other species had long ago came to the planet, and now lived relatively primitive existences upon the sparse lands of the world.
It did not take long for rifts to form between the peoples left behind. As they spread across Metis ideologies, some like those thought long forgotten in man’s history, took hold upon the hearts and minds of some and war followed. Men erected cities not unlike those of ancient Earth, and when what little technological devices of murder were left failed, he hefted the weapons of steel that had for so long been his tools of murder. But not all was forgotten from before The Abandonment and there were those who clung to the learning of man’s golden age, and guarded it jealously. These men arose in power and influence, but like others they too were driven apart in rifts brought forth by rival ideologies.
As the years passed new discoveries were made upon Metis. Things men had not imagined lied upon the surface of their “colony” in the years before. Rumors had existed of alien “sorcerers” and “witches” but these rumors were ignored, but when men found themselves treading upon the same soil as these creatures they learned the truth of the rumors, that this magic was real, and it was horrible. It did not take man long to master it himself, though, only a few were capable of doing so and surviving, let alone retain their sanity.
Other things were found upon Metis. Man had long been uncovering many ruins belonging to alien civilizations that had also colonized Metis in eons past, but none, xeno-archaeologists believed, belonged to a civilization that originated upon the planet itself. Then, as the millennia passed since man’s galactic civilization fell, and the last Night Vessels drifted beyond the olive skies of Metis, beings began to appear upon the world from within these ancient chambers buried beneath the sands. I should let it be known that man was never really alone in the galaxy, he had, several centuries before the Abandonment, made contact with dozens of sentient alien species, yet many of these were hostile, and many more had intelligences incomprehensible through man’s means of reason, but upon Metis man found the largest concentration of creatures with which he could communicate. But, these “beings,” that eventually appeared, were not of that breed. Entities, not quite like the species encountered so far, but beings of immense power, that were not unlike gods, and they would rule over many of man’s new nations like gods.
Great work. You seem busy with your own stuff, but I have posted a job request (paid). if you are interested, look it up under my log name.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote