World Map of Asdel

[morne]

Really impressive work. The bottom left island looks like a real atlas!

Thank you! You also sent me down a mini rabbit hole of island vs. continent. The bottom left "island", called Kador, is 797,950 square kilometers, so about the size of Greenland, which is considered an island. But Asdel is half the size of the Earth, so relatively it's twice as big I guess. Kador is also on it's own tectonic plate, which I think gives it bonus points in favor of being the smallest continent on Asdel, rather than the largest island.

[morne]

This is looking really good! The amount of work you have put in is impressive. I am taking lots of inspiration!

Thanks! It has taken many hours, and will take many more, but I hope it will be worth it in the end.

[Neyasha]

I love atlas style maps and yours is really impressive. The topography looks very realistic. I can't believe you managed to do this in a few weeks. I've been working on the topography of my world for ages now and it's not nearly as detailed.

[morne]

I love atlas style maps and yours is really impressive. The topography looks very realistic. I can't believe you managed to do this in a few weeks. I've been working on the topography of my world for ages now and it's not nearly as detailed.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I think it's a bit misleading to say that the topography came together in a few weeks, as it does not encompass the likely many hundreds of hours I've spent over the last year building up the techniques to get it to this point. It also helps that I'm cheating by making composite heightmaps from real-world data rather than going the hand-drawn route for topography. I've tried it before and I just don't have the patience!

[Neyasha]

To be honest: Everything besides hand-drawing the topography seems way too complicated for me (I'm not great with digital painting software).

[Ilanthar]

It's looking great! Love the general feel and level of details.
Good luck for the labels on the big land!

[morne]

It's looking great! Love the general feel and level of details.
Good luck for the labels on the big land!

Thanks! Fortunately I'm using ArcGIS Pro, so the Maplex engine takes care of most of the heavy lifting regarding labelling

[Hillshade]

Asdel is half the size of the Earth, so relatively it's twice as big I guess..

I think your plates make sense but I was looking at them on Earth scales. The only problem is that rocky planets or satellites smaller than earth would be less likely to experience or sustain plate tectonics. As far as I know we don't even know what initiated plate tectonics on earth, so I guess it's impossible to say a body half the size of Earth can't have tectonics.

I haven't really thought much about Earth-like planets on smaller scales so am not sure what to expect. I guess it should be easier to transport heat towards the poles, like your northeastward ocean currents, but I wonder whether we would get circulation patterns in the ocean and atmosphere organized like on earth. I might start researching this out of boredom. Do you have 24 hour days and a tilt of the axis?

The continent map is beautifully done. And nice to see a plateau!

EDIT: Oh yeah, half the gravity would mean much crazier waves, right? Probably some interesting coastal features.

[MrBragg]

Oh yeah, half the gravity would mean much crazier waves, right? Probably some interesting coastal features.

This is a really interesting question, since a planet with only half the surface area of earth (r = 2800 mi) would end up with only ~1/3 the volume of earth. Such a smaller size would result in lower compressional increases to the planet's density, too, so depending on the composition the gravity could be significantly lower than earth. Definitely interested in any you find if you choose to dig into this!

[morne]

I think your plates make sense but I was looking at them on Earth scales. The only problem is that rocky planets or satellites smaller than earth would be less likely to experience or sustain plate tectonics. As far as I know we don't even know what initiated plate tectonics on earth, so I guess it's impossible to say a body half the size of Earth can't have tectonics.

I haven't really thought much about Earth-like planets on smaller scales so am not sure what to expect. I guess it should be easier to transport heat towards the poles, like your northeastward ocean currents, but I wonder whether we would get circulation patterns in the ocean and atmosphere organized like on earth. I might start researching this out of boredom. Do you have 24 hour days and a tilt of the axis?

The continent map is beautifully done. And nice to see a plateau!

EDIT: Oh yeah, half the gravity would mean much crazier waves, right? Probably some interesting coastal features.

This is some really cool and fascinating insight! I was definitely aware that messing with the planet's size was going to invalidate a lot of assumptions we make about habitable worlds.

Really, making the world half the size of Earth was not done out of scientific interest but mostly because that's a lot less surface area that I have to map out while still being large enough to feel grand in scale.

The axial tilt of the world is the same as Earth's, as well as solar irradiance and rotational speed to make climate easier (I'm using Songs of the Eons because I'm too lazy to do it myself).

Full disclosure, though, I'm going to be handwaving pretty much all of the challenges that come with a smaller planet---this project is for a fantasy world so it's not really important, plus the world and universe itself is unlike our own down to a metaphysical nature.

Still, though, from a theoretical perspective these are all really interesting things to think about!