My world - The Everlandias

[LonewandererD]

Thnx, I have on Koppen around here somewhere but could never really get into it, suppose I'll have to get into now, should be a great help. Thnx for reminding.

You know, I've heard it sung in song but have never really took it seriously but Australia really does look like it's sunburnt. "I love a sunburnt country!"

-D-

[Karro]

Well, I can't put this in Aussie terms (I'm a USian, myself), but I think your arid grasslands that you see mostly in 5 and 3 would extend upward further into 6 and 7 possibly even 10. Not that USian terms will help, but I'm thinking how the Great Plains extend over a very wide portion of the interior of the US and you get arid "badlands" up in the Dakotas. You would still have temperate forests on either side in 6/8 and 9/12

[LonewandererD]

Not a bad idea Karro, I did want a grassland orientated culture and now I know where to put it.

Don't worry about using USian terms, quite a bit of my inspiration for Khazardia came from looking at some maps of the US, mostly the southern/central regions.

-D-

[Karro]

Glad I was able to help!

[LonewandererD]

My first maps never survive for long and Khazardia was no expection as I'm now working on Khazardia mark 2. Mark 1 lack that sense of scale I really wanted. I'm going to recycle a lot of mark 1 for mark but ultimately its going to be bigger, large to extend from the equator and past the polar circle, about 5000 miles from north to south and 8000 miles from east to west. Also, mark 2 is going to be broken up more, with more bodies of water cutting into the land; mark 1 was just too blocky for me. The idea is that a large that is already broken up will be easier to split into smaller regions. The regions of Adallia (of which there are 3) we broken up by political borders whereas the regions of khazardia need to be broken up by geographical borders, i.e. The Talumachi City States are seperated from the Cynnagul Lands by the Cynan Straights.

Enough of that, I has a question. I know that rain can block wind and any rain it carries, thus forming rainshadows, but can the mountains also redirect rain? If i have wind coming down from the north bearing rain and it hits a mountain range that is angle down to the southeast would the rain then be directed down to the southeast?

Also, does any know how to make convincing looking ice/ice caps in photoshop?

-D-

[Karro]

My first maps never survive for long and Khazardia was no expection as I'm now working on Khazardia mark 2. Mark 1 lack that sense of scale I really wanted. I'm going to recycle a lot of mark 1 for mark but ultimately its going to be bigger, large to extend from the equator and past the polar circle, about 5000 miles from north to south and 8000 miles from east to west. Also, mark 2 is going to be broken up more, with more bodies of water cutting into the land; mark 1 was just too blocky for me. The idea is that a large that is already broken up will be easier to split into smaller regions. The regions of Adallia (of which there are 3) we broken up by political borders whereas the regions of khazardia need to be broken up by geographical borders, i.e. The Talumachi City States are seperated from the Cynnagul Lands by the Cynan Straights.

Enough of that, I has a question. I know that rain can block wind and any rain it carries, thus forming rainshadows, but can the mountains also redirect rain? If i have wind coming down from the north bearing rain and it hits a mountain range that is angle down to the southeast would the rain then be directed down to the southeast?

Also, does any know how to make convincing looking ice/ice caps in photoshop?

-D-

I'm not 100% on this but I believe what happens is that the wet air starts cooling as it comes up over the mountains. As it cools, the water in the air condenses grows heavy, and falls. Because of this, the windward side of the mountain will get a lot of rain/precipitation and the leeward side will get relatively little. I believe that not much of it will be left to be deflected in another direction to go around the mountains.

[Gidde]

That's my understanding as well -- moisture gets dumped rather than deflected.

[LonewandererD]

Hey, minor update.

This is the new base plan for Khazardia (I'm thinking of changing the name, any suggestions?). It was drawn on two seperate pages which is why the the two halves don't line up right, the scanner did something weird to them. You get the idea.

Khazardia differs from Adallia in that Adallia was divided into countries with each country having its own colour. Khazardia is much larger than Adallia and so isn't divided into countries but cultural groups, as can be seen on the plan. Adallia didn't need this as it was all one culture. Each cultural group will have its own colour and will then be further broken down into countries.

Basically, this is what I have planned for each area. The two lines cutting across the landmasses are the tropics line and the polar circle.

1 - The Valesnian Empire. A brutish, primitive empire built on war and highly resistant to the spread of more civilised southern cultures. The area is heavily forested with the Western area being quite mountainous.
2 - Cyna. A small nation made up of near-xenophobic Ithekins. Dry inland but greener near the coast, especially during the wet season, sort of like the mediterenean (check spelling) climate.
3 - The Magocracies. Several nations unified under the pursuit of magick. The east and southern regions are topical with the rest being warm and dry almost all year round.
4 - The Tulimachi States. A collection of powerful city states associated with slave trade. Climate is the same as Cyna but on a larger scale i.e. a lot dryer inland.
5 - The Territories of the Zephyrn Empire. The northern provinces of the powerful mercantile empire of Zephyr in northern Loratolia. Very green around the coasts but the western area in the rainshadow of the mountains is very dry
6 - The Tonrell Nations. Several ancient nations renowned for the their sea faring accomplishments and featuring the largest number of Doumr who rule the nations. The area is cold and wet with vast pine (or is it evergreen?) forests.
7 - The High Wastes. For the most part this area is unclaimed and left to the less civilised races with only small civilised colonies being established in the west and south. Same as the Tonrell Nations but with larger expanses of tundra and grasses.
8 - No real idea. Need help with this one.
9 - Same as number 8.
10 - The Iset Nations. Several pseudo-european nations with strong religious beliefs and fierce prejudice of magick users. Your average temperate zone.
11 - The Khazard Expanses. Known as the land of thunder these lands are home to many giant races and small nomadic nations. The western areas are temperate forests and the central and eastern areas are wide plains and grasslands.
12 - The Dendigrothi Wastes. A forboding place contested by demon worshippers, the Valesnian Empire and the ancient Grandarch Giant race. Need help with the climate type here.

Have I got this right? Where would any hot/cold deserts form?

Truthfully this map is going to be a bigger pain than Adallia. Adallia was 2x2 pages, this is going to be 4x6 pages, am I going too big?

NOTE: For ease of colouring Khazardia will be broken down even further into smaller areas and so the areas on the plan are subject to change.

-D-

[Gidde]

Personally, I don't think you can go too big, if your computer can handle it. After all, you're mapping a world that is likely (if it's Earth-like) 25000 miles around. The bigger the map, the more of that world fits.

The short short version of the desert question: Deserts will surround your tropics line (especially inland), and follow the east side of mountains (rain shadow). You'll have especially lush areas on the west sides of mountain ranges (where the rain gets dumped causing the shadow on the other side), especially on the west coast, though that will dry out near the tropic line.

[LonewandererD]

Update...

Here is the b&w base map for Khazardia. It's not as broken up, ocean wise, as I would have liked so I'm going to make the next map I do a lot more broken up. I'm also drawing up plans for a small eastern pseudo-continent so I'll get pics up on that soon.

I'm glad I just recently changed to a better laptop for this map is huge, almost three times the size of Adallia and the image attached is only one fifth the size of its original size. I know it doesn't look like it but it is bigger than north america and europe and almost bigger than russia. I'm drawing up the climate plan for it using Koppen's Climate Clarrification System, this is a great boon to any map maker and I greatly reccommend it.

And just a few things to clarrify and question about. One, i didn't really make it clear at the beginning but the Everlandias are only my half of the world me and my friend are making, I have the eastern hempisphere, he has the west. Two, what kind of style would this type of map be? Is it Atlas, satellite, pseudo-satellite? And how do I refer to this style, do still call it Ascension's style, an adaptation of Ascension's style, or my style?

So, what do yall think, what needs work?

-D-