The Continent of Crecia

[Goombac]

So this is a map that's very special to me. I've been essentially working on the world for years, and it's gone through so many iterations that I've lost count. I have many different maps, computer files, google docs and notebooks filled with info that's been added and subtracted over the years. I always get to a place I like, then find some glaring mistake and scrap it and start again. I might share some of my scrapped maps later, but this is the first time I've made it to a point where I'm happy enough with my world to share it.

The continent is called Crecia, the world is Midna. There's a mythology behind it that I won't get into yet, but for the map, this is the beginning of history as the world knows it, so there won't be many labels and I plan to update it with the history as it progresses. The world is going through a pseudo ice age. There are many species that I'll update with once I've gotten far enough with the map.

In the map I've essentially finished the drawing mountains, all by hand, and I've started on adding the forests. The red line is the placeholder for the equator, and I planned this to be about the size of Eurasia with some Africa thrown in.

[Soixante]

Very nice! Lovely hand-drawn mountains, and it's obvious you spent a lot of time on them. Time well spent as they look excellent. Also very refreshing to see a map of a southern continent for once, where the equator is in the northern part of the map. Usually "we" (most fantasy cartographers) are very used to thinking the north should be cold and the south should be hot, because of our Western perspective. Too many maps depict a fantasy version of Europe, IMO. That's why this is nice to see.

One comment I have is about that inland sea or very large lake in the south west; something about the shape seems a little...off? I don't know, maybe a little too rounded? Not sure how to explain it, but a few of the other lakes also have this problem. Since the coastlines in general have lots of little bays and jagged irregularities, and feel very realistic, I would like to see a bit more of that in the lake coastlines as well. Other than that, the landmasses look very good and seem very believable.

[Wingshaw]

It looks good, Goombac. I like the colour palette a lot.

One fairly obvious problem, though, is that you've got rivers splitting on their way to the sea. That doesn't happen in reality. There are plenty of threads on CG that explain why better than I can. Just warning you, though: you might get a visit from the River Police soon.

THW

[Ascension]

Good golly. I do not envy you with all those mountains and forests. Kudos for having the tenacity to stick with it.

[Goombac]

Thanks, everyone.

Here's a little update. Added some more forests and slowly fixing some rivers. I was conscious I was breaking the rules when I did them, but now I agree that they should be fixed. And I'm thinking of completely reworking the rivers in the north. Added some labels, mostly for my own sanity as they break up the monotony of mountains, forests and rivers. And Soixante, I'm starting to agree with you about some of the bigger lakes, so I'll be adding to them later on.

Enjoy!

[jbgibson]

The land shapes are interesting and plausible, and the features you draw are done well. The rivers are even *drawn* well (okay degree of irregularity), it's just where many of them run that's unlikely. The one resource that'll set you on the Path of Plausibility is the thread in the Tutorials Forum titled How To Get Your Rivers In The Right Place. Redrobes explains things well, and you get just the right amount of info - enough to make believable maps, without having to acquire a degree in Hydrology.

Three situations I see right off that the tutorial will explain fully - rivers branching the wrong way, rivers too close to one another, and rivers 'taking the long way'.

The first, many of the watercourses you drew could be fixed just by treating the angle of joining differently. In general two rivers join at a somewhat acute angle, with the angle 'pointing' downstream. Just to look at the joins, you have a bunch of water flowing uphill from sea to mountains :-).

Second, there's some places where rivers parallel one another for long distances. Terrain-wise this implies a bit of a ridge between the two, SoMeThInG that keeps one from joining the other. That *can* happen, but you aren't showing even a hint of such higher ground as a divider. And practically, one wouldn't expect a minor ridge to be continuous across 2/3 of a continent - the least little low area would be an opportunity for a merger. You do see parallel alignments in a few places in the real world - ridged territory like that in China just north of the Burma border -- but even those don't proceed for multiple thousands of miles parallel.

And third, think about the terrain implications of situations like that lake south of Alboran. The ocean to the north and that to the south are both the same level. What you're saying is that the land drops off the same amount to the south of the lake as it does in the whole run of that river system headed west northwest, despite the river system being six times the distance, *plus* there must be some higher grpound to the south of the lake, else it would tend to drain southwards. Say that rise was halfway between lake and southern ocean - now you have *twelve* times as long of a slope northwest as you do to the south - that makes for a pretty sharp grade south of the implied separating ridge.... and again there's no drawn features to indicate such high ground.

There's plenty of other unlikely situations that tutorial will clue you in on, so take a thorough look please. A benefit is that once you internalize the rules of thumb, they become automatic, and drawing what looks right winds up being how a world would really work. Too, many of the places you'd want to correct on this map would be easy to do with a bit of erasing and combining.

This may sound like I'm being picky - I don't want to be. I like the overall look you have going, and lots of the details are spot on as well. The sepia-tone palette is pleasing. It's that last fraction of detail that's impairing your believability, and it's stuff that should be fixable without using a Titan-sized bulldozer :-). Don't scrap this iteration - there's too much that's good!