The World of Gaiyan

[Tim McGee]

Hey everyone, this is the first map I've posted at Cartographers' Guild--and I see it might need work. Perhaps I'll even redraw the map...it was a lot of fun to work on, after all!

This is a map of the fantasy world that I'm currently writing about. Sometime in the writing process, I realized that a map would be helpful to me--and here's the product of simply putting my ideas "down on paper" (well, on the screen at least).

Thanks for taking a look!
All the best,

Tim McGee

[Ascension]

2 things. The Burun and Telr rivers need to be separated as this is not a geological possibility. You can call it a canal and bypass the physics but that's up to you. If them being connected is vital to the story then it'll have to be a canal with locks and dams otherwise one of those rivers will dry up past the point where they connect. Also, you need to think about plate tectonics. The massive amount of mountain ranges seems to imply lots of plates coming together. I would eliminate some of those ranges or turn some into hills. Of course, this is all just to keep your story straight in your head so the actual depiction might have been overdone and that's quite alright - I've done that many times myself.

[Tim McGee]

Thank you for the feedback! My story starts out in the east part of the map, so I hadn't really thought to much about those rivers out west. I'm glad you pointed out the mountains, too. I'm opening a PS file now to make some edits.

Cheers!

[Tim McGee]

Here's the Latest WIP:

I changed the coastlines, and the river thing, and also went a slightly different direction with the ocean.



Now I'm trying to decide which mountains I'll keep or turn to hills...

[Tim McGee]

These are the mountains I'm thinking of going with. I'm wondering if I've reduced the overall number of mountain ranges too drastically?

[Deadshade]

Mountain ranges are something very rare - only a few % of the overal surface of a planet. So what you show is already above an average planet distribution.
As your map is on a very small scale (the island bottom right is broadly equivalent to Sicily) you would not find many mountain ranges on such a view.

So no it is not much reduced. Besides you find rarely mountain ranges in the middle of a land mass - they are generally on the interface ocean/land or along a line where one peninsula like land mass collides with a continent.
As for the rivers, given your scale they are much too large - a 2 or more leagues width is exceptionnal and would be seen only for the largest rivers like Amazon which have not enough place on a small Sicily like island.

[Wingshaw]

Although Deadshade is right about the percentage of planetary surface (Earth-like) and mountain area, I actually think you have too few mountains, now, and, honestly, I didn't have much of a problem with the numbers in your first post (I probably should have mentioned this sooner, though). The reason is that, while mountains overall may be rare, where they do occur they tend to be concentrated. Hence, in the relatively small geographic area of southern Europe, you have mountainous terrain (if not true mountains) in Turkey, Greece, the Balkans, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, southern France, and Spain. Since what you have is a regional map rather than a world map (I assume) I think you can easily get away with having many more mountain ranges than you do at the moment. The style of mountains you are using, by the way, looks really good.

I do agree with Deadshade about the rivers, though.

THW

[Tim McGee]

Thanks Deadshade and THW for the feedback! Yes, I have to say this is a regional map--although it represents roughly 1/4 of the world surface. So I'm thinking that I shouldn't add any more mountain ranges, but instead build-up the mountainous terrain throughout the map (areas like hills and plateaus)? The whole northern landmass is going to need something in terms of terrain.

Thanks again!
Tim

[Deadshade]

Yes, I have to say this is a regional map--although it represents roughly 1/4 of the world surface..

Hmmm, then you would be in huge trouble
As accoirding to your scale your map is something like 150 x 150 leagues (ordre of magnitude), that is around 250 000 square miles. As it is 1/4, the surface of your world is 1 000 000 square miles.
This is the surface of a sphere with a radius of ... 280 miles.
This is not a world, this would be an airless, waterless, gravityless small rock

[Tim McGee]

Ah! So my scale needs be a little larger...or this region needs to represent less of my world map. Haha Google says my radius should be in the 3,000+ miles range.