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    Question Constructive Criticism Wanted For Placement/Size

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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):
    Untitled65_20211226010215.png
    Last edited by Echolepzy; 12-28-2021 at 09:16 PM. Reason: Fixed map image not showing up || Huge update, redid map and added important information

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