decide where to put biomes, rivers and mountains on a continent

[Andarne]

Hello there folks!

I'll dive right into what's troubling me, as to not waste any time. Over the course of two years, two-and-a-half at a push, I've been working on my Minecraft RP Server's world map. There have been a total of three iterations (the current being the third), but none of them have seen the public eye yet.

Whilst designing the latest version I took some inspiration from this site and it's wonderful cartographers; island positioning, spacing, etc. The result was a design of my own hand; the map has six large continents, with surrounding islands of substantial size. I've already completed three of the six continents; two in the North, and one in the far South. However, it's the rest of the landmasses that are causing me grief. I'm unable to come up with a suitable, realistic layout of the terrain for these islands/continents!

An important matter that I feel I should mention is that all of the pictured, below, was once a single landmass, long ago, in my server's lore; I'd like to keep it as realistic to that fact as possible, and have been attempting to make sure the islands fit each other, and the terrain is consistent with tidal drift.

Included below is a picture of the current map (as of 09/01/13).

Full-res Download Link (18.5MB, 12,032 x 12,032)

Please disregard the pink colouring; this is for the program that I designed it in, for a cavern system.

As you can see, the continent to the North is the most mountainous, and shares some of it's rocky terrain with it's neighbour to the right; this continent, however, begins to flatten out as we head East and South-West. To it's south is a smaller, hilly island, with a swamp on it's Eastern flank.

I've tried to capture the feeling that the farther North you go in this map, the more mountainous it will become. The more South, the flatter, but I still expect mountains of course! Love them!

The main problem is the Southern continents; the South-most one, and it's immediate neighbour to the North (the one with the long, stick-out land heading East).

*How do I approach this?
*Where should the mountains go?
*What biome should each island have?
*Where would logical rivers be?

To anybody with the answer to these questions: please reply here, and assist my fledgling cartographer attempts!

[RobA]

Rather than continental drift, can you consider rising sea levels to explain the separation? It would simplify the conception, with the added issue (unfortunately) of having to deal with flooded lands/cities.

-RobA>