Mioris - My World Building Project

[tamhelsel]

Hello everyone!

I'm rather new to posting on this forum. I did post a small WIP a few weeks ago, but decided to rework that map into something that I liked more. My goal with this project is to map out my world from a macro level to a micro level. I'm going to be starting with the world map and then move into national maps and then regional maps. This past week I have been working on the world map and have made some great progress.

I started by generating the landmasses in FT3. I exported two images from FT3. The first was the landmasses with the ocean all one color so I could easily create a layer mask. The second was a height map to use in a later step. After that I opened the height map and colored map in GIMP. I set up my layer masks and then generated a bunch of layers of clouds and used difference and addition layers to get some variance. Finally, I used the height map from FT3, increased the brightness on the mountain ranges and then set that layer to addition.

landoutlineHM.png

After this I imported that height map into Wilbur. I ran some erosion cycles, percentage noise, fill basins, and an incise flow. That allowed me to add some texture to the map and carve out all of the rivers. Ignore the rivers running into the ocean, that is going to be taken care of with the land mask.

wilburHM.png

Next I created a bump map in GIMP from the height map above. I just played around with the settings until I got something I was happy with. (Again ignore the rivers in the ocean, that will be fixed in the next step.

bumpMap.png

I then took my images from GIMP and opened them in Photoshop. I guess that could seem weird, but I prefer doing everything that requires drawing and brushwork in PS because my tablet does not play nice with GIMP for whatever reason. Plus, I like GIMP's difference clouds and bump mapping better than PS's.

Anyways, I used gradients to draw the colors in. It was a time consuming process and still isn't done, but I am satisfied with the results for now. I plan on going in later this week or next week and fine tuning the colors and trying to make the environments realistic.

color1.png

I drew the nations by using the lasso select tool and bucket filling those selections. I already knew some of the nations I wanted in my head so I started by drawing those in, and then letting the natural features block in the rest. After I had the nations figured out, I imported a png of the different territories into ImageJ and used it's image analysis tools to find out the exact land area of each nation. I am using that information with a small piece of software I am developing to create realistic fantasy/medieval demographics. (If anyone is interested I can post the tables my tool has generated)

territories.png

Finally, I just created borders for the nations using colors that seemed toned down enough to not distract from the overall map. I am still playing with some effects to make the borders look nicer.

borders.png

The next steps are going to be continuing work on the colors, texturing the ocean, designing heraldry for each of the nations, and placing cities, towns, and labeling.

Thanks for checking this out!

[Ottehcnor]

This looks great! I'm always a fan of thorough river systems, and I love how many branches you have further and further upstream crisscrossing your continent.

The one thing that stands out to me is your northern and southern tips. The blue-grey color looks to me like the land there is partially submerged. I assume you want it to look tundra-esque. Perhaps less blue in the color you've chosen could get rid of the "submerged" effect (unless of course that's what you were going for).

Glad to see you picked back up, I had been wondering when I would see more fo your map on your old thread, and I guess I'll have this to look forward to instead!

[tamhelsel]

Now that you say that about the blue coloring in the tundra areas I see it too.

And yeah, the first map was more of me just messing around with stuff because I haven't made anything other than battlemaps before (let alone used photoshop).

[tamhelsel]

I started to mess around with adding symbols for capitols, cities, and towns. I only did the eastern continent (Andefara). If you are more interested in the demographics of the five nations on this continent, feel free to check out my page on World Anvil!

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/mioris-...ons-category-1

In order of appearance on that page, Zhall is the jungle nation on the eastern coast, The Melchor Empire is the largest nation which takes up the majority of the continent, The Barislav Protectorate is the desert nation on the western coast, Guaro is the tundra nation to the south, and Heros is the peninsula to the far west.

The first image is the symbols placed with nation borders showing (I haven't changed how these look yet). The second image is without the borders. I prefer the no borders look, so I need to figure out what to do for borders now. The star symbols are capitols, the diamonds are cities (above 8,000 population) and the circles are towns (1000 to 7999 population).

cityTestbBorder.png

cityTest.png

[Azélor]

What is their technology level? During the middle ages, the world pop on Earth was probably around 400-500 millions if O remember correctly.

[tamhelsel]

What is their technology level? During the middle ages, the world pop on Earth was probably around 400-500 millions if O remember correctly.

I wrote a tool to calculate fantasy demographics based off of the website below. I'm using a rough average off 100 people per square mile (This is about the level of population density France had in the 14th century). Technology level wise, my fantasy world (Mioris) is about renaissance era level of technology, augmented by magic. For reference, The Melchor Empire has a land area roughly the size of modern day Russia.

The information generated in the charts on my world anvil page comes from the tool I wrote. If you, or anyone else is interested I can post it here when I am finished.

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm

[Azélor]

But consider that France was a densely populated country at that time and for most of the pre industrial period.
Some estimate give 15 million people in 1500. That puts France as the third most populous country behind China/India, tie with Japan.
France represented 6,5% of the world population, now it's down to 0,9%.

It's is not impossible to have high population but you need the right conditions.
In case you are wondering, I took the data from here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...rb0y54emkueJ5g

While these numbers are not necessarily accurate, they are a good reference.

It would be cool to see your tool if you don't mind sharing it.

[tamhelsel]

Since my world is a high magic world I'm keeping the population rather high due to magical healing and whatnot. Also this is just a draft right now so things are likely to change in the future.

Thanks for that excel file. Looks like interesting stuff.

I'll post the current version of my tool either later tonight or tomorrow (playing DnD right now)

[tamhelsel]

Sorry it's been a while. I was dealing with some family issues. But now I'm back!

I've attached the toolkit I made to generate fantasy demographics. It is based off of the information from this website.

Using the tool is pretty simple. Click the DMToolkit .exe file. There are a few tabs at the top, the only current functional one is the National tab.

While in the National tab, you will see a few text boxes and some buttons. Fill in the Nation Name, Land Area (don't use commas), and Population Density, then click Calculate. It will show you a bunch of information in a text format. If you are happy with the data that is generated, click the Add To List button and it will add a new button to the list of buttons on the right that will allow you to access the information again after you calculate a new nation.

Once you are happy with your nations, you can click on each on individually and get the plain text, table view (can be copied into excel), and BB Code versions of the data. If you would prefer to have all nations data on one page, just click the All Nations button.

You can download the .zip file from this link.

[Azélor]

It's not bad but I still prefer the original version because it is easier to read. The place where you insert the text is half hidden under a grey line.
But it's useful to be able to save and load already generated countries.

I'm thinking about working on a population density calculator.