WIP - Continent of Vyros

[Caenwyr]

One last thing: if you do choose to link the inner sea to the ocean, a better place would be the northeastern tip, where the placement of the northern edge of the sea close to the mountain range to the north seems to suggest a fault line, slowly ripping the continent apart. This hypothesis would be supported by the already submerged rift north of that mountain range: continental break-up usually happens over a hotspot, where a plume of magma pushes up the continental plate and fractures it in three directions. Usually only one or two directions end up being viable, the other dying out or only forming millions of years later.

A few examples in our world:

• East African Rift (the original two arms created the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, the third is now becoming active and already stretches all the way to Malawi and Mozambique. Eventually it will separate eastern Africa from the rest of the continent)
• Sinai peninsula (all three arms are active - the northeastern arm is the reason for the low altitude of the Dead Sea Valley, which will eventually be submerged and connected to the Red Sea)
• Rhine Graben (which threatened to break up Europe, but seems to be dormant now)

The hypothetical hotspot in your map would be located somewhere just off the coast, roughly in line with both the already submerged trench and the one still forming south of the mountain range.

(By the way, if you choose to go for that scenario, be aware that the northern edge of the inner sea will probably be a good deal deeper than the rest of it. This seems irrelevant, but it might influence erosion patterns etc. For example, there won't be any deltas on that coast, not even tiny ones)

[AlexSchacher]

Mapv3.png

Thanks for all the information Caenwyr and Viking, Ive removed the huge delta and changed it to a single river instead. I decided to go with the south side of the sea rather than the north mainly because I wanted a natural nation border in that area. I think I am happy with all of the bodies of water, and moved onto forests and country borders. The north and western parts of the continent are covered in a massive pine forest, the south and eastern parts of the country covered in temperate oak forests, and the mid-northeastern part of the continent is a mixture of both forests. There are two swamps, one in the midsouthern part of the continent (south of the large sea) and on the eastern coast of the continent. Im curious if these are acceptable places for swamps, I really don't know how they are formed or where they are normally located, though I know Florida is a swamp on a peninsula, so I placed them near the oceans. Also, the land above the huge trench is snowy year-round while the land below the trench is temperate climate. (I do need to signify the snow, somehow).

[- Max -]

The overall palette is nice though the map is way too dark atm. Also mountains brushes are a bit too repetitive imho.

[AlexSchacher]

I didn't actually use any brushes here, although I understand how they work, I am working in Paint.NET. I know I should probably be using gimp, but its too late to convert this map to it now. But yeah, the mountains are all hand-drawn individually.

[Azélor]

I like how you made your landmasses and I also like the idea of closed seas.
For the snow try something like what Oraven Max did http://www.cartographersguild.com/fi...ntasy-map.html
Using a pale yellow white and change the color tone or opacity.

[- Max -]

For the snow try something like what Oraven did http://www.cartographersguild.com/fi...ntasy-map.html

Hmm my name is - Max - not Oraven

[Azélor]

Oups ! I misread it

[- Max -]

Haha no problem, was funny to noticed that

[AlexSchacher]

Vyros.jpg

Alright, some updates. I lightened up the color, started adding towns and roads, added a border, a scale, a faint grid in the background, shadow under the continent for it to *pop* and other random tweaks. Im curious to see what you guys think!

[Falconius]

I like the colours. I even like the darkness because it is still legible, but has a real sort of style to it for lack of a better word. You may have given the continents just lightly too much shadow for my tastes, they are in the border of floating off the oceans but not quite there, like they haven't made up their minds.

The scale you've given there seems to me to be truly immense, I don't know if this is intentional or not. Consider that driving Barcelona to Berlin is less than 2000 km. Or that LA to New York is less than 4500 km (driving) and you see what I mean. The span of land you have there is over 12000 km. Russia and Europe combined are smaller than that.