Critique Needed: I'm Unsure If This Bizarre Seeming Biome Setup Computes

[jplet]

So I haven't posted anything from this project officially yet, but I'm kinda stuck on a point that I do not have the expertise to figure out myself with any confidence. So I need somebody who knows a thing or two about rain shadows and river formation and biomes and all that.

Here's the situation (map below): I have a Europe-sized peninsular continent in the southern hemisphere of an earth-sized planet; near the center of this peninsula is an elevated plateau region (currently named the Sehterre Basin) that is ringed with mountains. For context (and these are really rough estimates), the Sehterre Mountains in the center of the below map are near the 25th parallel south, and Lake Calien is near the 20th parallel south.



Here's my issue right now: I'm unsure what the biome situation is here and I need help with that. Here's my best guess.

By my estimate, prevailing southeasterly trade winds are able to carry rain directly into the basin through a sizable gap in the mountains to the northeast, near Lake Calien. The winds would hit the mountain perimeter in the northwest and curve predominantly north, inducing heavy rainfall in the upper slopes of the northwestern mountains, heavy enough to develop dense rain forests in at the north half of the basin and give rise to all the rivers that feed Lake Calien. The south of the Basin, however, quickly goes from savanna to windswept desert, since there is virtually no rainfall there and (now) no rivers flowing through it.

I don't know if this holds up. Anybody have any input?

For more context, I've got a bit of history to the region; a river used to run south from Lake Calien across what is now the Sehterre Waste and curved through a pass in the Sehterre Mountains to join up with some rivers on the south side of the mountains, and the center of the wastes was a verdant area where an ancient kingdom used to hold sway. Midantine was it's capital. Then an invading kingdom moved in from outside the basin to the north, took over the Lake Calien region, dammed up that river and started a canal from Lake Calien to the coast; this resulted in the total desertification of the Basin south of Lake Calien and more or less wiped out the ancient kingdom; the only remnants of it are in the remaining population of the kingdom's ethnic groups and the surviving architecture of the kingdom in cities in the area.

[Azélor]

Without knowing what the surroundings are like, I think this looks good.

[Charerg]

As Azelor noted, this largely depends on a great many other factors like what the rest of the continent is shaped like, but at first glance looks ok. Oh, and a nice looking map btw, I hope we'll get to see the rest soon!

[jplet]

Well hey thanks for the prompt responses you guys!

Tell you what: i’ll start a WIP thread for the full map when I get off work later today and post a link here. We can then confirm that preliminary assessement of yours.

And thanks for the compliment! It took me quite a while to finally get this map to where it is now so that is really heartening to hear!

[jplet]

https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...597#post381597 full map of Cymeria posted; you can see the region I'm talking about in the close-up at the bottom of my initial post.