Trade Routes of the Qarmien Gulf during the Bronze Age

[moki]

Hello everyone!

I recently joined this forum and wanted to share the first map I made with y'all! I want to say that the map style is influenced by FT Cartography's "Mapping the Gnomish Incursion" map. I am still learning to create maps, and my style isn't fully developed. His maps were among the first to catch my eye, and I liked their style.

Trade Routes of the Qarmien Gulf During the Bronze Age.png

I used Wonderdraft to create an archipelago of islands until I found an island shape I liked. I created a detailed map of the shape to create a "continent," adjusted the coastline, and made it black-and-white. I then put it into Inkscape and traced the coastlines to create the map again in Inkscape.

This is a completed map of a small region in my world. It was heavily inspired by various maps of trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean during the bronze age, and it is meant to highlight the different "states" and their influences during this era, as well as the trade routes and the trade goods. These trade goods are not set in stone, as I have not created a biome, climate, or vegetation map, which I realize is me working backward, but I just wanted to start creating these maps.

As this is the first map that I created and the fact I am still learning, I wanted to start off by creating maps of the earlier history of my world, as it will allow me to change the names of things and have it be a little less accurate, and I also know that I haven't put a date on the map because I haven't figured out what I wanted the years to look like. The thing that I struggled with was creating names for things, as it is something that I am not very good at, so I wanted to ask for advice on the ways I could create realistic names for my world.

I know I have a few things missing, such as the unit of measurement in my scale and other notes in my key/legend, but please let me know if you see anything missing/something that is worth adding and what I should improve on, as any advice is welcome. I want to learn from the best!

[Ilanthar]

It's looking nice, clean and efficient. I'm not entirely convinced by the granular texture you got on the topography, though. It's original yet a bit off imho.

[moki]

It's looking nice, clean and efficient. I'm not entirely convinced by the granular texture you got on the topography, though. It's original yet a bit off imho.

Yeah, the texture comes from me trying to make a Wilbur heightmap, and I might've messed up somewhere along the way.

What about it seems off? Is it just the texture or something else? because I think I get what you mean, but I am just not sure how to fix it.