My friend, you certainly think your way through your world building much more than I have ever done; much respect.
Hi guys,
As promised in my introduction post / thread, here is the map set for the planet Arnâron. It is a world inspired by Lowell's Mars and Barsoom, a drying-up desert world littered with the ruins of ancient civilizations and criss-crossed by canals built to preserve what life survives.
Before I destroyed the world, I designed it in its heyday, when it was very much like Earth and covered in oceans. (As a note, the oceans were much more shallow than on Earth; without consulting my notes I am fairly sure the deepest trenches were 3000m deep.)
All of these maps were created with Inkscape.
Tectonic map, with regions of volcanism indicated (black triangles):
Ocean currents:
Wind patterns in "January":
Wind patterns in "July":
Climate zones:
With legend for the climate zones:
Finally, I figured out a rough migration pattern on how mankind conquered the world:
These "past" maps mostly serve as guidelines for me when working with the "current" Arnâron; that's why the climate zones are fairly rough (they are quite unrealistic in part, as I learned from later critique) and why I am quite happy with not fixing the ugly arrows, etc.
Anyway, some time ago the world was shook by a terrible cataclysm of epic proportions, the reasons for which are shrouded in the fogs of time and only re-told in myths and legend. Arnâron gained its two moons, which are consequently named Death and Destruction in the local languages; fire rained from the sky and the oceans boiled away. Hell on Earth and all that. Many centuries later, life and civilization cling on by a hair-thin thread, and the planet now looks like this.
The thin straight lines are the life-giving canals, most (but not all) of which still work. Only major canals are indicated; but state is not. The circles are principal cities. Only the black solid circles are currently inhabited cities.
Rough landscape notes:
Political map:
I won't go into too great detail; Arnâron remains a work in progress, it's not yet "done", but some of you who commented on my intro thread liked the map so I wanted to give you the full set. Hope you enjoy it. Feedback and constructive criticism of my work are always encouraged and appreciated!
My friend, you certainly think your way through your world building much more than I have ever done; much respect.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Well, I am trying. I gotta dmit, though, that before I would place climate zones etc rather arbitrarily and that this was the first world where I worked out the climate etc graphically. It surely won't be the last, however.
Last edited by bartmoss; 02-05-2009 at 06:19 AM.
Very detailled. It brings the world to life. Cool!
I agree with Ascension - it's obvious you put a lot of thought & effort into the actual 'world design'.
I usually just go with what I think looks cool, without much thought to climatology (beyond the basics), prevailing winds and tectonic plate movements.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Thanks - I am glad you guys like them.
Yes, my maps are never created just for the sake of creating a nice map; I definitely come from the world design corner, and my maps are always created to illustrate something. I'm trying to be more "artistic" about my maps, which is why I am a member here now.
There's a nice, clean style to these, particularly once you get labels on them.
I like it.
I think, therefore I am a nerd.
Cogito, ergo sum nerdem.
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Pimping my worldmap here. Still WIP... long way to go, but I'm pretty proud of what I've done so far...
These maps are stunning! Thank you for posting them and have some rep! Lovely work, bartmoss!
Thank you :-)
WOW!
These maps are superb! I also agree with Ascension that you really have got the thought process down cold.
I think I'll be half as good as you in a few years...
"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."
- Louis-Hector Berlioz
All my work is released under the Creative Commons 3 license. Feel free to use and copy, but please give credit where it's due