Constructive Criticism Wanted For Placement/Size

[Echolepzy]

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This is my first time making a map for a region from scratch. I'm not the best at this, so I thought it would be a good idea to ask some people who have more experience than I do.

The region I'm making a map for is called Aphorae. It's a magic-based fantasy continent, and it's both a continent and a country, kind of like Australia. This map in particular is a simple biome map. Once I complete this one so I know where I'm going to put everything, I'll be making a much more detailed map, and possibly height and weather maps as well, for the fun of it (and because I overthink everything and have very ambitious worldbuilding habits).

Is this map too realistic for a magic-based fantasy map? Are some biomes in places with unnatural elevation for that particular biome? Are certain locations too big or small? I'd love to hear what you have to say, because I could definitely use some pointers right now.

This map is for a continent that will be the main focus of a storyline that exists in a community roleplay, a comic and possibly digital novel series, and a video game. I am a full-time professional game developer, a serious long-term roleplayer, a freelance digital artist, and a hobbyist storywriter, so any and all of my worlds and locations will fall under at least one of these categories.

Aphorae exists in a world called Qinisi. Qinisi is a planet inhabited by magical and unusual beings (from wood elves to shapefolk, and so on) that's very well-known for... supernatural occurrences and frequent disasters that have been normalized. It has an irregular orbital pattern, often changing its orbit around its star from a near-perfect circle to a long oval and anywhere in-between, and occasionally even changing its direction of rotation every 20 years or so, though this isn't guaranteed to happen. It's a bit far from its star, so it relies on astrals to do things that the sun would normally do.

Aphorae's place in Qinisi is pretty close to the United States' position on Earth, but a bit further to the left on a flat map. Most of the other continents in Qinisi are pretty big but they're made up of several smaller countries, some of which are floating islands. For example, Kixir (the largest continent) is made up of several smaller countries that also serve as their own kingdoms (Kingdom Ursidae, Kingdom Canis, Kingdom Felis, Kingdom Reptilia, Kingdom Aves, Kingdom Equus, Diverse-Animalia, Mirrand, and the Nation of Nightmares). It also has the biggest impact on the rest of the world. Paradise, the continent that has been the main focus of this world's story for awhile, is actually a continent centered around a country called New Paradise, but it also consists of other countries (Subterra and the Sky Kingdom), and New Paradise is a bit small.

A magical barrier of sorts surrounds Aphorae, "protecting" it. This barrier will expel or temporarily transform anyone who tries to enter if they belong to a species or race that isn't on the "species whitelist", which is defined primarily by biological traits and capabilities. It also changes the ocean currents in the area of water just at the edge of it's ocean territory at a rapid speed, creating a sort of underwater wall that will likely tear anyone who touches it apart easily.

Most of the weather is controlled by elementals. The wind is constantly being controlled by air elementals, so it's very different from the wind in most other continents. The water outside of the reef is unsafe for swimming because the water elementals have turned it into a chaotic everlasting torrent with some properties that are toxic to most biological beings. Areas with life elementals will often have uncontrollable overgrowth, and if there's a big storm, it's likely being caused by a storm elemental, water elemental, or air elemental. The majority of the elementals are there to maintain their elements, but some elementals are mischievous and take pleasure in causing trouble for others, and almost none of them like people.

Aphorae's lands are held together by the aether leylines, underground lines of power that allow life as it is to continue. They enhance the magic of most people, and they are the reason elements and elemental magic are so common. Each biome has some sort of common elemental connection, and locations with specific elemental connections are controlled by some sort of leader that's associated with that element. In order to keep these lands from splitting apart and drifting off, they must be connected to at least one other biome that's a part of the elemental domains of an element that biome has. The tropical island, reef, beach, rainforest, and wetlands are held together by water domain, the plains, meadows, and hills are held together by air domain, the snow mountains, mountains, and pine forest are held together by frost domain, the pine forest, maritime kingdom, and forest are held together by plant domain, the desert and canyons are held together by fire domain, and the cursed forest, fae tangle, and volcanic island are a part of a less common domain, so they're kept in place by their similarities to the neighboring biomes, for example, tropical climates and thick forests. The capital kingdom and valley are the main locations, and they aren't controlled by any one element, but several, and are often fought over.

The elevation in Aphorae is kind of slanted. The beach and wetlands are the lowest parts, and then the neighboring biomes gain elevation a bit, rising sharply a bit at the forest, fae tangle, capital kingdom, canyons, and cursed forest, dipping down a bit kind of like a slightly flatter bowl, and then rising very sharply at the mountains, snowy mountains, pine forest, and maritime kingdom.

The fae tangle is a lot like Glimwood Tangle and Ballonlea from Pokémon Sword/Shield.

The maritime kingdom is a lot like Daggerfall from the Elder Scrolls.

The capital kingdom is a lot like Solitude in Western Skyrim, which is also from the Elder Scrolls.

The wetlands are similar to Balloosh from Animal Jam, and the swamp biomes from Valheim.

The volcano island is a little bit similar to the volcano den from Animal Jam and Greely's Hideout/Greely's Inferno, which is also from Animal Jam.

Edit:
Thank you to Falconius and Azélor for giving me some pointers! I've made some updates to improve the map, including...
- Adding a scale and grid (this turned out smaller than I had originally intended, but I don't mind!)
- Changing "city" to "kingdom" so it's clearer that those locations are groups of cities and not just very large single cities
- Rearranging biome positions based on elevation and elemental domains in a way that makes more sense (I drew the original map at 2 AM...)
- Adding mountains, cursed forest, and tropical island to balance out other biomes
- Making the biome sizes a bit more even
- Removing the rocky sea cliffs since they had no purpose other than creating a dangerous, uninhabitable visible border
- Removing the label that said "ocean" since the presence of ocean around the continent was fairly obvious
I'm a little bit unsure about the positions of the canyons and the cursed forest, but other than that I think the edit turned out well.

Original Map (Before Improvement):
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[Falconius]

Well its really hard to say without any scale included. But taking the "Volcanic Island", and the "Beach" as a scale in comparison to such real world islands I'd say that tiny little island is crammed with way too much stuff. I think realistically the most biome difference would be based on elevation. If however this place is the size of an Australia or other continents you could certainly achieve all those biomes but I'd imagine they'd be much differently arranged. Given that it seems the biomes are the most important aspect of the map, I'd look at what sort of features (elevations, air currents, ocean currents, direction of global rotation etc.) achieve those biomes and how your land form can be adjusted to achieve them. If this is not a realistically based map, then as long as it follows the logic of your world and magic system then it hardly matters, just that you maintain your systems consistency.

[Echolepzy]

Well its really hard to say without any scale included. But taking the "Volcanic Island", and the "Beach" as a scale in comparison to such real world islands I'd say that tiny little island is crammed with way too much stuff. I think realistically the most biome difference would be based on elevation. If however this place is the size of an Australia or other continents you could certainly achieve all those biomes but I'd imagine they'd be much differently arranged. Given that it seems the biomes are the most important aspect of the map, I'd look at what sort of features (elevations, air currents, ocean currents, direction of global rotation etc.) achieve those biomes and how your land form can be adjusted to achieve them. If this is not a realistically based map, then as long as it follows the logic of your world and magic system then it hardly matters, just that you maintain your systems consistency.

Aphorae is about the size of Australia, if not a little bigger (it's pretty big). I'm not great with scales but I can definitely try to include one in the finished version, and if not this one, possibly the territories map. In Qinisi, the world it's in, it's the fourth largest continent (out of 10+) and it's position in this world is about the same as the United States, but a bit further to the left on a flat map. Qinisi has an irregular orbit pattern, occasionally even changing it's direction of rotation every 20 years or so. Ocean currents and air currents aren't really something to decide on position since the water around Aphorae is protected by the continent's magic field and constantly changing the current direction to create some sort of "wall", which is the same field that will expel or temporarily transform anyone who tries to enter that's not on the "species whitelist", and the air is constantly being controlled and maintained by air elementals so the currents in that continent will differ greatly from most other locations. The positions of these biomes are only partially based on realistic biomes, since elevation is the only realistic thing that would make a difference. The aether leylines, an important source of magic that holds the continent together, are based on Aphorae's elements system. Elements like fire would control locations with higher temperatures, water would control the more tropical areas, wind/air would control the plains, moors, hills, and any place where air flows easily, and draconic would control places with high elevation, but draconic is among the rarer elements so it wouldn't have as much of an effect. Common elemental areas need to be grouped together at least a little bit for the aether leylines to hold them together, but rarer elements only have partial control over that domain so they can be separated without much of a problem. The land is shaped kind of like a bowl with one side missing; the beach is the lowest area, and it's kind of low for the biomes bordering it, but it gradually gains elevation and when it hits the edges, like the mountains, the elevation goes up sharply. The rocky sea cliffs also go up sharply, but they're too dangerous to live in, and the sea port city is also very high-up, having the majority of the area a little bit below the halfway point of the mountains, and the areas getting closer to the ocean having several sudden drops and steep hills until it's even with the very cold part of the sea around that area (it's colder than normal). The sea port city is a lot like Daggerfall from the Elder Scrolls, but with more extreme changes in elevation, and the wetlands and volcano are based on, for whatever reason, Animal Jam (I grew up with it and kind of had to).

Good god, that was longer than expected...

[Azélor]

If this is a whole continent, some regions are way too big.
The city, volcano and beach are the size of entire countries, although the beach could be a desert, so it might be ok.
A city that big would make Tokyo look like small. Enough to house tens of millions of people.
I have no idea what a Fea tangle is. I guess it is magical?

The rest mostly make sense but it all comes down to how it will blend together.

[Echolepzy]

If this is a whole continent, some regions are way too big.
The city, volcano and beach are the size of entire countries, although the beach could be a desert, so it might be ok.
A city that big would make Tokyo look like small. Enough to house tens of millions of people.
I have no idea what a Fea tangle is. I guess it is magical?

The rest mostly make sense but it all comes down to how it will blend together.

It is a whole continent, but it's also it's own country, and most of the other continents that share this world are pretty big but they're made up of much smaller countries (for example, New Paradise is round and only has one city, some mountains and a snowy forest, and some forests outside the city walls).

The two city locations are sort of like their own urban-ish regions with several cities inside of them. Imagine fusing Tokyo and New York City together, and then separating it into chunks with parts of upstate New York between them.

The fae tangle is most definitely magical, probably one of the most magical locations in Aphorae. It's a lot like Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle from Pokémon Sword/Shield.

I should also probably mention that this continent will be the primary focus for a community roleplay, a novel/comic series, and a video game, so large and easily-distinguishable locations will be important for the functionality of this map. (I'm a full-time game developer, freelance digital artist, hobbyist storywriter, and passionate roleplayer, so any and all of my worlds and locations will be at least one of these.)