August 2016 Challenge: Merfolk Kingdom

[Neyjour]

These were my 6 rolls:

6 (Elf - any type) / 12 (Merman) / 5 (Minotaur)
4 (Palace or Fortress) / 10 (Large region - kingdom, empire, etc.) / 5 (Tower)

I decided to go with Merman / Large Region

Here's what I've got so far (currently unnamed):

### Latest WIP ###

Merfolk Kingdom WIP-01 by Neyjour.png

Now I'm trying to decide how I want to do the underwater terrain...

[Mouse]

I love the way you have already turned the ocean into a gigantic pool by the shading around the shore. I guess you will be adding abysses and sea mounts in much the same way you draw mountain ranges and valleys?

Lovely colours... but blue is my favourite.

I'm definitely going to be watching this one unfold

[Neyjour]

I love the way you have already turned the ocean into a gigantic pool by the shading around the shore. I guess you will be adding abysses and sea mounts in much the same way you draw mountain ranges and valleys?

Lovely colours... but blue is my favourite.

I'm definitely going to be watching this one unfold

Thanks!

Yeah, I want to have varied "terrain" for the ocean floor, with different elevations. Just not sure how I'm going to do it though... either with flat textures (what I'm leaning towards), or 3D rendered terrain.

EDIT: Or possibly both...

[Mouse]

A hard choice to make, but there's time to change your mind half way through. You've started nice and early

From what I remember of marine geography its quite different.

Is this ocean going to be big enough to have a continental shelf? If so, then you would need to make it a kind of split level pool with a steep step down into the depths about 50-200 miles off the coastline.

But maybe I'm just talking off the top of my head because its 3.30 am over here, and I'm not really thinking straight.

I'd say one of those expensive and luxuriantly illustrated atlases with the stripped away oceans that show all the rifts and abyssal plains might be a place for a few ideas to get you started? I bet you could take whatever they've got and make something better

EDIT: You could even steal a section of real ocean bed topography and impose it on your map, although I'm not sure if there's a source for such a thing as ocean floor data.

[DanielHasenbos]

So far it looks good and very interesting idea for a map. Curious to see how you'll pull it off!

[snodsy]

Great start this looks really interesting, be following this one

[Bogie]

Looking forward to seeing this come together.