My Map and need advice

[ravells]

Welcome Yandor! I do like the internal waterways in Insania - interesting patterns. Is there a particular type of 'look' that you're going for? What would be helpful is if you could post a map from a book or the web showing the sort of style you had in mind, and as Torq asked told us a bit more about what sort of software you were using. We could then make suggestions as to how to achieve that style. Very often the act of just observing carefully the map style you want to emulate will be enought to give you a sense of direction.

Cheers

Ravs

[RobA]

Hi Yandor!

Nice start on that map.

One thing I like to do (that might help, or not is to throw some contour lines on a map, to help decide where things should go (i.e it will be wetter on the windward side of an ocean mountain range, more desert like on the leeward side, different elevations have different types of forest/jungle, water flows downhill, etc.)

Here is a quick (possible) sketch of terrain contours on the main island:
Attachment 1266

This should give some idea on how to run rivers, etc.

It also give more insight on how to place borders and roads, as they usually follow natural terrain lines (rivers, mountain ranges, etc.)

You didn't identify brown... I'm assuming an interior desert?

Check out this thread and possibly Geoff's Climate Cookbook.

Anyway, hope that was moderately useful.

-Rob A>

[Midgardsormr]

I hadn't seen the Climate Cookbook before. Good link!

Another good reference for both climate and geology is Expeditious Retreat Press' A Magical Society: Guide to Mapping, which is a free-to-download chapter from the larger A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture book.

(And if you like that one, try also A Magical Medieval City Guide.)

I like the colour of the world map--it's an interesting choice, and it's very striking. And the shapes of the landmasses tell some interesting stories all on their own. The internal seas in Insania, for instance (INSANIA! Come join the MADNESS!): What happened there to rip that entire continent in half? And the islands to the south--is that a meteor impact, or did a volcano shatter that large island? Were these two cataclysms related to one another? And if that island chain was formed by a volcanic hotspot (similar to Hawaii), what caused the tectonic plate to change its direction of motion so radically, such that the two newest islands do not follow the same arc as the older ones?

Those aren't questions that I want answered, of course. They're just the ones that popped into my mind as I was looking at those land shapes.

Just for kicks, I looked up the island of Thera, which was mostly destroyed by a volcanic eruption ~1600 BC, on Google Maps. Here's the image:

[Yandor]

Wow where to begin haha, Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the quick replys, quite remarkable for any community if you ask me.

Anyways I'll start from top to bottom.

Beowulf- I understand completely about the whole wrapping it, and well to be honest I didn't really think about it until like 3 months after I had drawn the map, so when I was "visualizing" it, it was suppose to be set on a globe, and well I don't think it would be too hard to fix, but I don't really know how to fix it with just Photoshop and nother misc programs I've picked up on, but thats the least of my concerns for the moment atleast =D Just want it to be more geologically fit, like volcanos where they should be no random hot spots etc.
P.s. If I look at my map correctly, and view it like any Earth world map the North pole would be greatly distorted, and so if my north pole is water, I don't think my map really needs to "change" so much other then maybe tilting the continents to fit the natural curve of the world.

Torq- I pretty much only have Photoshop CS2, CC2 & CC3 don't have a clue how to use them, I live with Photoshop so I know my way around it =D, anyways back to topic I just threw the colored map in to show what I've already thought out, all my handy work with details, cities and everything else is hand drawn on many papers. However I do plan to make a digital map with the mountains, forest etc, and I've already done one map (image one, all in Photoshop) So I was going to do the same, but better formations but still the idea is there. So the scale of lines and things (other then mountains) were extremely rough and not entirely drawn to perfection, actually I made it, while I was making my first post so yeah it only took me a minute or two.

Ravells- Well as I stated with Torq I live with Photoshop, so whatever style seems to fit my needs at the moment I try to achieve, so pretty much any style will work, expect shadow relief. However thats where my problem comes in, I don't have an exact look I want to achieve, the map I put up was the first initial idea I wanted to go with, but after seeing so many different ways, its hard for me to choose now. But Eric the Red, and his rich colors, simple details is the kind of look I want at this moment I guess I could say. So not a top down view but a diagonal look on it.
Erics map
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...final72dpi.jpg

RobA- Ahh the contour lines, never thought of that, nor have I thought of wind direction either. That should help a lot, and might I ask how easy is it to actually make effective contour lines, like do you make them every 100 ft? 5 miles? 200 miles? and generally with mountains how do you determine the grade? Becuase in a tropical island made with an old volcano isn't going to be as tall as like mount everest, so how would to readly determine the high points? not unless its just by random and say well this point is the peak at oh I don't know 15,000 ft? The Brownish orange thing is a desert, and thats my other problem I don't know if that really works, and if it does why? is it a shadow desert (lack of rainfall from mountains) or is it a desert zone made by the latitude and longitude of the map (forgot techincal names) etc

I love the help and I hope I answered your questions OH! scale haha well its suppose to be around the earth size, maybe a bit bigger, so Cairan from the west side to the farthest Island would be about the USA from California coast to where Maine fits on the same degree on the East side. And Insania kind of like a Euro-Asia continent, not as big or whatever but thats the "Size" which also makes me wonder if the details are to big like Torq was saying, like the mountains should be smaller or what?

[Yandor]

Wow sorry Midgardsormr I missed you post, but THANK YOU!! haha my ideas were just fullfilled I could tell you exactly how Isania was ripped apart, and yes I could tell you how the Island arch was made, just put it this way Arsegal is to blame! haha that makes me excited, anyways thank you for the link, and for that matter thanks for everone and their links, I've actually read all the posts by Calendril and skimmed the cook book, which I knew would be very helpful when I actually dove into it. Midgar I was wondering though since a chapter is only available for download, what else is actually in that book? do you know? Also thanks for the Thera picture, I just watched a special on Volcanos on the History channel =P talked about a lot of things that I learned in my geology class but with actual video visual aids, so yeah I want to fix my volcano islands and stuff but then I realized I didn't place any calderas or places yet for one, so we'll see.

Also heres my climate map

[Midgardsormr]

Midgar I was wondering though since a chapter is only available for download, what else is actually in that book? do you know?

I flipped through it once in the local game shop, but I didn't have any money at the time, so I didn't buy it. From what I recall, it was a top-down design manual for world-building. You start with geology, determine climate and topology from that, then build the ecologies, which leads into what kinds of cultures will grow up in those environments. It also talks about what sorts of things you should expect to change when you introduce magic into the system.

The other book, Magical Medieval Western Europe, goes into economic and political systems, and how they might be different in a world with overt magic. I really need to get around to buying both those books--they're very well done.

In any case, the sample chapters are well worth reading. I can't think of another company that's put so much good and useful info into their freebie sample chapters.

[Beowulf]

Well, I do really like your work, Yandor. Mine was a minor quibble, overall I like it. And Insania is really neat- I like the "shattered" look of it. By chance was it inspired by the Helloween song "Twighlight of the Gods"?

[pyrandon]

Congrats, Yandor: your post has surely generated interest--and all in one day! Nice!!

Good luck trying to achieve your desired effects (and emulating Jared's map--a lofty goal!) I do have to suggest you not put in politcal boundaries until much later in the worldbuilding process; it is very, very typical that borders follow geographical lines as much as political lines.

Otherwise, I look forward to following your progress!

[Yandor]

Beowulf thanks for the complements, and isania wasn't inspired by anything other then prior map drawnings. We can say it was inspired by that song though , to be honest when I draw maps , I just sit down grab a pencil and start drawing wavy lines, after getting the continents connected, I go back and fix lines, redraw parts of the continent that just seem weird or could look better if an inlet was there or some gulf etc haha so no inspiration other then drawing a map is used

And Midgar I think I'll join you in buying that book, I read over the chapter and yeah good stuff

Pyrandon thanks hehe I am surprised to get this big of response too, and I'm greatful people are willing to place interest in it. And yeah Jared's maps are a huge goal, but might as well aspire to something useful right? and the only reason why I made the borders and what not was to help me get the feel of the cities, Kingdoms, nations etc and other things I needed so I could start with the general outline of my book. I made a vague map with few details at first to help work with my book, then the whole cartography interest took hold and well now I am here