The Continent of Sudria

[trexmaster]

This continent is part of a larger conworld I'm working on called Gorrinth. It's essentially the conworld's equivalent to our Africa.

Deisceart (the name means "south") lies mostly within Gorrinth's tropical latitudes. The northern portion is desert, the middle region is grassy savanna with scattered trees, and the southernmost area is rainforest. The dominant animals are reptiles such as dinosaurs (including birds) and pterosaurs, but there are also numerous species of primates such as monkeys and apes.

Deisceart is the continent where humans first evolved on Gorrinth. The human populations indigenous to the continent, while varying in many physical features from region to region, are all dark-skinned with tightly curled black hair.

The major regions of Deisceart are:

Keshta: Older than any other Gorrinthian civilization by a degree of several thousand years, Keshta lies alongside the Itara river which bisects the northern desert. Keshta is ruled by a monarch, who can be male or female, called the Pharaoh, who is believed to be a deity with power over the weather. It is the Pharaoh's responsibility to ensure that the Itara floods every summer so that its banks can be farmed. In exchange, the Keshtans build colossal stone temples and tombs for their Pharaoh. Keshta is famous all over Gorrinth both for these monuments as well as its wealth from trade.
Shinka: This is the savanna that lies south of Keshta. The various ethnic groups in Shinka fall into two categories: sedentary farmers living alongside the Itara, and hunter-gatherers roaming the savanna. The latter are famous for their hunting prowess, for they can bring down dinosaurs of all sizes, even the largest sauropods. These tribes use all parts of the dinosaurs: meat for consumption, bones for building huts, and skins for clothing and shields.
Djali: A savanna region in western Deisceart, Djali is a kingdom with many cities of mud-brick buildings. The Djalinese are most famous for their wealth, which they have acquired exporting gold, dinosaur skins, and tropical goods.
Xongo: The jungle area in southern Deisceart. Most of the peoples here base their economies on hunting and farming, but pygmy hunter-gatherer bands are said to roam the deepest parts of the jungle. There are also rumors of lost cities of gold and stone hiding in the jungle, but the existence of these cities has yet to be confirmed.

[waldronate]

The rivers need a little work (the one in Xongo and the middle one in Djali) but otherwise a good start! Rivers join rather than split. The Keshta river has a good delta but it's a bit large on that scale.

[Gidde]

Just a quick etymological note -- who named Sudria? Because if it was the native people, there's no way they'd call it that. It would be more like "Land of the People," as they'd have no one to compare their skin to. If on the other hand the continent was named by an imperialistic (or they wouldn't be naming other people's continents) white-skinned people, then the name makes more sense. Just food for thought as you go about building your world.

[Gamerprinter]

"Pull over..." and note the flashing lights of the River Police on your tail.

As Waldronate pointed out your rivers are doing unrealistic things in your map. To better understand what is wrong, please read both the following threads in the links provided...

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=7052

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3822

Rivers seem to be the most misrepresented geologic terrain feature found in the maps posted on this site - many, many people screw them up. Its the job of the river police to identify these discrepancies and point out how to fix them. Read both threads all the way through and you'll have what you need to get them right.

And as Gidde pointed out, native peoples generally name themselves, as "human", "people" or "superior human" in their native tongues, especially when comparing themselves to other races around them. They would never call their nation, "the Land of the Blacks" - that would be a name applied to them by someone else.

For example, "Souix" is the Lakota word for "superior man". On an aside, "Cheyenne" is also a Lakota word for "scarred people." Cheyenne is not what the Cheyenne call themselves, its what the larger more dominant native peoples, the Lakota call them - which subsequent "white men" used to call them.