WIP Unnamed Continent

[WillP]

I am working on a series of novels in an high fantasy setting, and the entire series will take place on the major continent of my world. What I haven't decided is whether it will be a flat earth or a globe, but with that in mind, Here is the first map of the continent as a whole. It is still a work in progress, and any tips will be helpful. If I decide on a globe, then I will attempt to project the map on a Mollweide projection with the equator roughly where the eastern mountain spur meets the central mountains. I have not put a distance legend on yet, but the continent is approximately 5,000 leagues from the SE point to the NW point.

By the way, the roughly asterisk shape is intentional; the gods made the land that way.
Continent Low Res.jpg

[Gamerprinter]

What I'd be asking myself, if I were creating such a world, is a flat world a necessary attribute for the story? Consider Larry Nivens Ring World, Nivens created a lot of science behind the reasons, the engineering, of why a ring world is a necessary attribute to his fictional location. Does the gods of your world need it to be flat?

So if there is no 'hard reason', rather being a preference one way or the other, I'd keep to the real world, and suggest you do a globe. If you do have a good reason for needing a flat world, then do that. Don't make it flat unless there's a good reason to do so. I have no personal preference one way or the other for you - for me, I'd make it a globe.

[WillP]

Thanks for the tip. Any issue about that will come very late in the series. The first book is set on top of a single mountain at the end of that eastern spur, and the second book will be set in the plains around there. I plan on a much more detailed map of the NE peninsula for the second book, but at this time it's not necessary.

[york84109]

Glad to see a map with a story!

[WillP]

I have spent the weekend writing as well as working on the map of the Northeast peninsula. I still have to label the forests, the gaps, mountain ranges, and add towns and cities (And of course, label them as well). The questions I have for everyone here: Do the rivers look right? Do the forests look right? The setting will be medieval, about a thousand years after the fall of a great empire, so the reason there are very little old forest is because of extensive forestry. (That's an important plot issue. The faeries live in the forests and men don't. The deforestation was part of the races estrangement.)

Also, the scale at the bottom: 0, 100 leagues, 200 leagues, and 500 leagues respectively.NE Cresent.jpg

[waldronate]

A thousand years seems like a good amount of time for some pretty dense forest to regrow. Look at American east of the Appalachians: it was pretty much denuded, and now it's fairly large trees that have regrown in a hundred years or so. Mind you, there are a couple of critical species missing (the passenger pigeon, carolina parakeet, and American Chestnut) in that new forest and there's not telling how many less charismatic species disappeared. As I understand it, there are places where it's illegal to tear down old walls and you will frequently run across an old field wall in the middle of what is otherwise dense forest.

A similar regrowth place on the thousand-year scale is old Mayan empire. Evidence suggests that there wasn't a significant tree left standing by the time they were done (and that the deforestation may have been a significant factor in their decline). Now it's dense, tangled forest. Again, there no good way to tell what's been lost since the original old-growth forests.

The map looks good. Things seem plausible on the map, with the exception that there might be more forests than you have shown (if it's not cultivated, grassland, or wasteland, I would expect to see it forested).

[WillP]

Good point, Waldronate, but I was actually considering the forests of Greece, Italy, and the Balkans after the Roman Empire fractured. Before Al the Great, there were actually many forests in those areas; of course, those areas remained cultivated.

I have yet to draw in the political aspects of the map yet. The Empire fractured into many petty kingdoms.

Thanks for the input.

[WillP]

I have modified the map a little bit. I added another forest, but since the entire peninsula will have remained settled after the fall of the Empire, I elected not to overgrow it. I also added some blue to the ocean and some lines of long/lat. (Red line is equator). Still gotta decide where the cities and towns are going to be, and I need to put the Eagle's Peak Monastery (setting for book 1 Monastery).

All comments and suggestions will be welcome. The colored and detailed maps will be for the blog I plan on publishing in conjunction with the novels. The books will have very simplified B/W "woodcuts".
NE Cresent Second Copy.jpg

[WillP]

Back to the map of the continent. I've done some work on it today. The scale on the lower right is in leagues. (The finished product will have a much more antique style of distance scale.
Continent.jpg