Planet Ni

[samkatz]

I've posted about this conworld in a few different threads over the past year or so, but I decided to make this into a comprehensive Ni thread. In this first post, I'll include the latest version of every map I have so far, and then I'll update in this thread thereafter, instead of making a new one every time.

So, I started with this height map:

Ni_heightmap.png

And from that derived a map of the major (and less major) rivers and lakes, in addition to a map of the major climate zones.

Ni_waters.pngNi_climates.png

What I've been working on more recently is a map of the major language families. These maps are meant to represent Ni at a level of tech around 1500 BC. The broader language families in the first map are meant to be on the level of Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, etc., while the smaller families in the second map are meant to be on the level of Italic, Germanic, etc. Eventually, I plan to actually develop some of these languages, and really this is just meant as an organizer for myself to better be able to create the history of the cultures that speak those languages, but I thought people here might be interested in them.

Ni_languagefams_broad.pngNi_languagefams_narrow.png

Anyway, feel free to critique or otherwise comment. I'd love to know what you all have to say.

[David South]

One thing that I notice is that there are no islands that are a good distance away from major land masses. This makes the water in between the continents feel sort of empty. You could fix this with some texture fairly easily. You could also show depth of the ocean as a gradient of blue to darker blue.

I like the idea of mapping climate zones! I have never done that before.

As far as the language families, I noticed that with very little variation they follow the climatic regions. I think it would be really interesting to see if there was an area where a language crossed over climatic borders in a dramatic fashion, because then it makes you wonder why that particular language is so far spread, what events led that to happen?