WIP World (Idir)

[Albrynn]

Hello everyone! I've been working on a setting for the better part of 3 years now, and have only ever made hand drawn maps with little regard for realism or the more technical aspects of how the world functions (plate tectonics, realistic biomes, ocean currents, etc). However, I would like step up my game a bit and put more polish into my work, so I need help from more experienced cartographers than I. The primary purpose of the setting is for my RPG group, and at its inception I was, and still am, intentionally building off real world cultures and combining them when I felt it could give an interesting twist.

So far, I have mapped out 4 continents with plans for 2 more, and would like some feedback on what I could do to polish up the more technical specs of the world. Most of the names attached are stand-ins, being either direct translations to words in other languages, or outright made up to sound like the languages I'm basing them on.

I'm sure that none of the continents are shaped realistically, the rivers are probably a mess, and I doubt that my mountains are believable in regards to plate tectonics. In my head I was thinking of the planet being about 1.5 times the size of earth, with only 1 moon that is a little larger than our own. I don't even know where they might be realistically positioned on a globe in regards to each other and the climates I was thinking they had.

If anyone could point me in the direction of some good guides, or advice on how to fix this trainwreck of a world, it would be greatly appreciated.

-Albrynn

[Gidde]

First, kudos for posting your maps!

Some tough love incoming; please take it as the assistance it's meant to be!

So, Rivers. On your Ramal continent they look great: they run from high points to the sea and merge on the way. Elsewhere we have a little bit of trouble.

Except for deltas (see later in this bullet), rivers don't ever split on their way to the sea. Think of it as a tree with its trunk starting at the ocean and the branches reaching into the mountains. Sometimes it has roots that spread (deltas) which basically happen when a river runs through a swampy low-lying area after it picks up a LOT of sediment (big slow rivers like the amazon and the mississippi). But one big split that goes in two directions doesn't happen. The reason for this is that water likes to stick together; once it starts going another way, it ALL wants to go that way. So you get riverbeds that shift over time instead of splitting.

Rivers don't run uphill. You have several rivers cutting through mountain ranges on their way to the ocean. You may be able to get away with it once, as a Grand Canyon or a river that plunges underground (this happens in Central America, I believe), but you will hit a wall on believability with this many of them.

Lastly, and I'm not actually sure that you're doing this, but it's a common mistake, so I'm mentioning it anyway: rivers won't go from one ocean to another. That would either have them going uphill again, or it'd be a *really* narrow strait of salt water between two separate land masses, so not really a river.

If I remember correctly, there's a sticky in the tutorial section called "How to Get Your Rivers in the Right Place," that mentions these and I'm sure other points, that set me straight when I was making weird rivers back in the day; it's a great help!

[Albrynn]

First, kudos for posting your maps!

Some tough love incoming; please take it as the assistance it's meant to be!

Thank you so much for the feedback, and the constructive criticism is always welcome!

So, Rivers. On your Ramal continent they look great: they run from high points to the sea and merge on the way. Elsewhere we have a little bit of trouble.

Except for deltas (see later in this bullet), rivers don't ever split on their way to the sea. Think of it as a tree with its trunk starting at the ocean and the branches reaching into the mountains. Sometimes it has roots that spread (deltas) which basically happen when a river runs through a swampy low-lying area after it picks up a LOT of sediment (big slow rivers like the amazon and the mississippi). But one big split that goes in two directions doesn't happen. The reason for this is that water likes to stick together; once it starts going another way, it ALL wants to go that way. So you get riverbeds that shift over time instead of splitting.

Rivers don't run uphill. You have several rivers cutting through mountain ranges on their way to the ocean. You may be able to get away with it once, as a Grand Canyon or a river that plunges underground (this happens in Central America, I believe), but you will hit a wall on believability with this many of them.

I realize that I don't really have any notations for elevation, but my idea for them running through the mountains as they are is that the Didean continent is essentially one big slope, with the northern mountains being the highest point and going downhill to the south. The valleys that they run through are just that, big valleys that would allow that passage with some cataracts along the way for any major elevation changes that might be necessary. But I see what you're getting at, I'll have to shift some of them around a bit. As for the splitting rivers at Alysyrr, that's artificial for the most part, but I'm not certain how feasible that really is. The other ones can go, they aren't crucial, I just thought it interesting.

Lastly, and I'm not actually sure that you're doing this, but it's a common mistake, so I'm mentioning it anyway: rivers won't go from one ocean to another. That would either have them going uphill again, or it'd be a *really* narrow strait of salt water between two separate land masses, so not really a river.

I didn't draw any of the rivers from ocean to ocean, so I think I just need a better way to differentiate my rivers from nation and forest borders, but thanks for the heads up!

If I remember correctly, there's a sticky in the tutorial section called "How to Get Your Rivers in the Right Place," that mentions these and I'm sure other points, that set me straight when I was making weird rivers back in the day; it's a great help!

I'll look it over to fine tune the rivers, thanks again!

[Albrynn]

Just looking for some feedback on roads and city placement, after following Gidde's hand drawn map tutorial. Still a WIP.

[Gidde]

Looking good! Also that northeastern river makes more sense now that we can see the gaps in the mountains. Roads and cities look just fine.

[Jean-Abdel]

The new map is really cool! Just add some more details and a few tributaries to the rivers and it will be perfect, can't wait to see that on the other maps!
For the mountains, almost everythingthing is realistic if you don't get into the geological history of your world, but the islands only seperated by a narrow strait of salty water are not, and you should either have them further appart from each other or more small islands with weird shapes, it's way too regular here (look at the Philipines). The two big islands shaped like moon crescent are also very unrealistic if they are bigger than the crater of a volcano that exploded, but it's still geologically possible. Finally the mountain alone in a plain surrounded by other mountains is also unrealistic, maybe you could say it's a volcano (like Kilimandjaro) on a microplate crushed by all the big plates converging together, but still unrealistic.

[Gidde]

I don't know, the one in the southeast of the archipelago looks like an impact crater to me, so I call realistic enough on that one. Looks like Tycho, flooded.

[Jean-Abdel]

Yeah but if a meteor that big ever hits the Earth there would probably not be any life surviving, I don't know how big is the island but it's probably hundred of kilometers in diameter, so much bigger than chicxulub.

[Albrynn]

Gidde is on the right track that it was an impact crater, and the more unrealistic shapes I was choosing to hand wave because magic. The first life on the planet basically abused magic to such an extent that it called down a meteor shower to decimate what was originally a the largest continent on the planet. There was little to no other life before that, so it was very much a reset.

I'm also working on the basis of a 9 plane universe, ala most DnD settings. The idea after the Starfall is that between the destruction and the erratic energies at play caused the islands to form the way they did, opening planar tears and the like.

[Albrynn]

Alright, after more than a few mistakes and many hours, the first map is complete. A few of the steps in Gidde's guide I had to modify since I'm using GIMP 2.10, but I think it came out great!

Please be brutally honest in your critique.