Difference between a Pure Magical Fantasy World and Realistic Fantasy World

[Jaxilon]

I wouldn't say they are all create for D&D. Most are created for RPG gaming or just for the love of creating a world even if it never sees a game table. There are other systems for rpgs than D&D but if you meant maps created for gaming then I would say that has driven the creation of quite a few if not the majority you see here. we also have a few real world professionals who do geographical maps and stuff for real.

I still barely think of myself as a cartographer since I see myself more as an artist who is currently working around cartography.

If we were to throw reality out the window it could make it suddenly very hard to communicate with one another. Someone draws a face with two eyes on one side of the head and we are thinking...is this painter blind? Reality based mapping just makes immediate sense to everyone.

If you jumped into a car and there were nothing but buttons I think you might be a little unsure of what you were dealing with. If you created rivers that ran uphill that would be very odd and would certainly bother the more OCD of us. Now, if you wanted to have rivers run uphill then we need an explanation. Just like any author who writes about an unknown race has to explain to us who and what they are about, if you make maps that don't relate to what everyone is familiar with that is fine but you have to explain it somehow or we just won't get it.