My Fantasy Continent Map

[jpocruz]

Hey there everyone!

Some days ago I posted a request for a map; I already had a shape and general idea in mind, but had no knowledge on world building to actually make something nice and somewhat realistic, which is what I wanted. This is the basic continent I had thought of:


But well, that isn't enough for me, and being a bit low on money, I decided to give my own try on doing the map. I did a bit of reading, and have some slight progress to show, so well, I'll start updating this thread with new things.


Here's update #1
I did a bit of thinking on how that shape would've been formed with tectonic plates, and this is what I came up with. Rough continent shape included.


After that, I polished the continent's look a bit, and added some islands; not really sure if I like how the latter look, so any feedback on that would be highly appreciated, on top of any you might feel like giving.


After, I went back to my plates, and imagined how they could've collided and intaracted with each other. Since looking back at it now the drawing seems a bit confusing, here's what's happening: Plates 1, 2 and 3 are continental. Plate 2 is forcing itself on top of 1 and 3, and 1 on top of 3. Now, I'm not sure if this is something that actually happens... I honestly just needed an excuse for having separate regions.


Now, having that done, I have all my mountain ranges pretty much drawn out for me. (Ignore how crappy they look, I'll take care of style later)


Since plate 2 is on top of all the other ones, it's the coldest one. Below it, is plate 1, and then 3.



I'll be stopping here for today, since I don't have much clue on how to proceed from here. I think the most logical thing would be to create rivers and lakes. I really don't know what to do after that, and I also have some questions:

1. Is this realistic enough?
2. Do the islands look weird? Should I add more? Less?
3. How big should something like this be? I was picturing it a bit bigger than Brazil.

Also, please give me any sort of feedback. This is my first try, so I know I'm bound to make plenty of dumb errors.

Thanks a lot for reading it until now! I'll be updating this as soon as I can + get directions and feedback from all of you experienced people. :)

[Azélor]

I'm not an expert of tectonics but it does not look right.
Mountain placement could be wrong but i'll let the expert talk about that topic.

For example, plate 1 is moving in 3 directions at the same time and planet 2 is expanding. Something need to push the plates (divergent boundary) , they are not simply expanding out of thin air.
The fact that 1 and 2 are going in the same direction, make it unlikely to have tall mountains. I not even sure it is possible.

Since plate 2 is on top of all the other ones, it's the coldest one. Below it, is plate 1, and then 3.

By on top, you mean north?

[jpocruz]

I'm not an expert of tectonics but it does not look right.
Mountain placement could be wrong but i'll let the expert talk about that topic.

For example, plate 1 is moving in 3 directions at the same time and planet 2 is expanding. Something need to push the plates (divergent boundary) , they are not simply expanding out of thin air.
The fact that 1 and 2 are going in the same direction, make it unlikely to have tall mountains. I not even sure it is possible.



By on top, you mean north?

Alright, yeah, you're right. Looking at it again, it's unnatural looking indeed.

And answering your second question, no, by top I mean actual height in relation to the sea. My idea is that plate 2 violently crashed with 1, and actually got a big part of it sliding on top of it. Do you think that's a bit too much?


==/==


Update #2:
First of all, I just realised how stupidly big the images are. They'll be smaller from now on. After some second thought and a bit of research on tectonic plates, here's what I now have:

I'm not sure about plates who follow the same direction, since that doesn't seem to occur naturally (I'll treat them basically like transform boundaries); still, I don't mind a bit of fantasy and weirdness here and there.

Now, changing plates like that also changes a bit of my map, especially my islands. Here's how I think it'd look, but please, correct me if I'm wrong.

[Azélor]

And answering your second question, no, by top I mean actual height in relation to the sea. My idea is that plate 2 violently crashed with 1, and actually got a big part of it sliding on top of it. Do you think that's a bit too much?

Not really. There is a plate that slides under the other but that does not really mean the other plate is higher. What happens is as the plate slides under, there is a lot of friction/resistance with the contact of the other plate. That friction makes the plate "on top" fold and the land to rise over time creating mountains and plateaus. But yea, I guess it's pretty much the same as saying that it's higher.

[davoush]

Based on where you want the mountains, the easiest and most obvious way is to simply draw the plate boundary along the orogeny line, and have the two plates converging. The southern oceanic plate movement doesn't really make sense - divergent boundaries generally occur in the middle of landmasses, or in the middle of a large ocean. This plate looks like it should be part of the same plate which is converging to the one in the north. The same principle applies to your other oceanic plates - oceanic-continental boundaries as close as this generally only occur when there is subduction, but you have two of them as transform boundaries.