Map 01 Tectonic.png

Map 01 Continents.png

Map 01 Climate.png

Maps were a childhood passion of mine and perhaps the first element of my early attempts at creating fantasy worlds. I've been working on writing a novel or novel series set in this conworld for years. Recently I've tried to flesh out my world's geography and increase its realism, and I came up with this crudely-drawn outline of tectonics and landmasses on which I'd appreciate some comments, before I get any further.

These maps are intended to cover an essentially earthlike planet. They were created in Inkscape. The brown areas are major mountain ranges. The finished product will be a lot prettier, I hope, and include rivers and forests and islands and other details. I know the aspect ratio is probably not optimal, and I'll adjust that soon.

Virtually all the action of the novel takes place across the northern part of the major landmass. The protagonist starts in the northeastern area I've marked as "temperate," which I've characterized in the novel as rugged, grassy highlands, broadleaf forests in the north and some nut forests in the southwestern end, home to a pastoral, semi-nomadic people whose influences include the Scots, the Kyrgyz, the Buryats, and the Tuvans. The center of the north continent I wish to be steppe and desert, and in the west, also marked "temperate," I've envisioned a land hosting a waning empire a bit like Byzantium or Sassanid Persia, extremely fertile toward the coast and more arid in the interior, toward an ancient mountain range. I would prefer to modify the map to make these situations possible rather than vice-versa.

My starting idea for this map was a supercontinent breaking up. Rift valleys are forming and flooding while island chains are starting to appear at the antipodes. The big rose-colored plate is shifting east with a slight counterclockwise spin, while the movements of the smaller plates pull the supercontinent apart, as the continental blue north plate continues to drive up north and east. After I've finished working out the continents and tectonics I’ll concern myself more with the details of the climate.

I've never before cared about the lands beyond the purview of the novel, but a more top-down approach to worldbuilding seemed to be warranted. I've looked around at tutorials here and elsewhere. I'm an historian, not a geographer or geologist by any stretch of the imagination, so I don't trust myself not to notice glaring errors.

At each step above—does my logic appear sound? Any advice or recommendations would be helpful.