AERLAAN – A playground built for a muse

[PaGaN]

Okay, so I un-fussied the tectonics map and made it a little more infomation friendly.

So:

Red = convergent
Yellow = transform
Blue = divergent

Aerlaan Tectonics 2.jpg

Greyed out the map so it's easier to focus and simplified the representation of the tectonics. Also probably more accurately represented the spread/shear zones of the divergent boundaries.

To my untrained eye I can't see a problem with what is happening. i have projected the map onto a sphere mesh in PS and it fits (that's actually why the south pole divergent boundary looks weird, that's kinda how it fits down south).

I got rid of the small plate west of the northwestern landmass. I couldn't really figure out what it was doing there. also actually added plate movement speeds in cm/yr and got rid of the fused plate boundaries (I only included these to justify some ancient eroded ranges like the Tianzi Mountains in China which i guess i can really include anyway )

I'm wondering if it's worth naming the plates? What do you guys think? It would kind of pin me down to the end result naming in some regard. I guess i'm okay wiht that.

So, I guess unless anyone chimes in with some words of wisdom I guess I will proceed (Gods help me).

PaGaN

[Azélor]

I don't know much about tectonics. I'm good at making realistic poles and that's about it.

[PaGaN]

I don't know much about tectonics. I'm good at making realistic poles and that's about it.

LOL, well, poles are very important for many things...

Methinks I may have to hit up Charerg as i know he (she?) went very deep down that particular rabbit hole.

My worry is that i spend a sh*t load of time moving forward from here only to find that what i end up with would be impossible from a climate and biome perspective because of the tectonics (or am i being too paranoid/cautious?).

PaGaN

[tatteredglyph]

I'm wondering if it's worth naming the plates? What do you guys think? It would kind of pin me down to the end result naming in some regard. I guess i'm okay wiht that.

So, I guess unless anyone chimes in with some words of wisdom I guess I will proceed (Gods help me).

I think what you got looks really good so far. I can't comment too much, since I know squat about tectonic plates - though I am doing a lot of research to help me with my own. That being said, and from the tutorials and such I've seen, you're on the right track with the plates.

It'd be interesting to name them - "technically" Earth's have names, so I don't see why your world wouldn't have them named. It would help in distinguishing which one was talked about. I wouldn't go too elaborate, but having it where a scientist would be able to accurately convey which plate they were talking about would be ideal.

[PaGaN]

It'd be interesting to name them - "technically" Earth's have names, so I don't see why your world wouldn't have them named. It would help in distinguishing which one was talked about. I wouldn't go too elaborate, but having it where a scientist would be able to accurately convey which plate they were talking about would be ideal.

Yep, I think I'm inclined to agree. okay. pending update for tomorrow = naming of the plates which will probably influence future continent, state, cultural developement (oh gods, THE PRESSURE!!!!!)

[PaGaN]

### Latest WIP ###

So, plates are now named which should make it easier to talk about what's doing what.

Aerlaan Tectonics 2.jpg

[Falconius]

Looks pretty cool. Do you have shots of the tectonics on a sphere? Might make it easier to figure things out. To me it looks reasonable (in comparison to earths). I don't see it represented there so I'm not sure if you've covered it, but plates don't necessarily move in straight vectors, they can also be rotating. For instance the Chalderan plate would be a likely candidate for rotation as it is caught between plates moving in opposite directions. The rotation factor tends not to be huge, but with a small plate like that it would be more significant I'd imagine.

Also I looks through but didn't see anything but have you considered the ratio of land to sea that you would like to achieve? In comparison to earth this has an enormous amount of land. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing as its easier to have more interesting stuff on land than it is in the water (practically speaking). I would imagine it would lead to a much dryer climate, and perhaps less stable (Azelor would know more about the appropriate effects though). Meaning a lot more desert, and probably hotter deserts with very radical temperature swings.

[PaGaN]

Hey Falconius!

Thanks for the feedback. I have checked the plates on a sphere mesh in Photoshop and things all match up and look workable.

I agree about the rotation factor and, actually, on a globe you would kind of see that the Sycobian Plate is kind of just spinning there at the top of the world (I imagine the spin coming from two convection currents towards the edges of the plates powering the counterclockwise spin.

For the Chalderan Plate I hadn't really though about spin. I was more considering the fact that the plate is being forced upward into a massive plateau as the Lorician Plate bulldozes it into the Taoshanic Plate.

Regarding the land/sea ratio, i am cognizant that Aerlaan has about a 50/50 split. This should certainly make things interesting when we get to see how the climate shakes out. I'm fine with whatever is revealed and if Aerlaan decides that she is mostly a desert world then so be it! I LOVE deserts (old school Frank Herbert DUNE fan here! )

So long as there are enough verdant areas to support life/culture/civilization then all is good.

PaGaN

[kacey]

I don't know much about tectonics so I can't comment there but the coast line looks pretty interesting and it will be neat to see how the climate works out on those big continents. You seem to have a knack for naming things and I like how you're world is developing a personality of it's own it makes it seem more alive.

[ladiestorm]

you have gone WAY over my head when it comes to making maps! I can't even begin to comment on what you have so far except to just say wow....