Reply With QuoteFantasy map making doesn't have to be 100% geographically accurate, but there are some general rules of thumb for mountains. Here's a link for a video that should help you out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FEmwJrwcss
How do I place mountain ranges?
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I'm trying to play around with Fantasy World Map making as I want to get better at creating good world maps that have a foothold in reality.
In order to do this I'm essentially planning to just make a bunch of word maps with input and advice from the wonderful people here at the cartographers guild.
I have put together a continent, I quite like the shape and coast lines.
I started to try and put down mountain ranges, but wasn't happy, they didn't look right, so I wanted to ask, where would you place mountain ranges and why?
Fantasy map making doesn't have to be 100% geographically accurate, but there are some general rules of thumb for mountains. Here's a link for a video that should help you out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FEmwJrwcss
Hello Laughy,
my mantra is: everything happens for a reason.
That's a good thing, because having a reason to put mountains somewhere is what makes them look natural, and as an added bonus can open up story or lore.
So, this is what I did:
laughy.jpg
From the top:
The grey area is mostly shaped by activity below the world's surface: magma pushing up. It's strongest to the north creating my beautifully jagged volcanos (should I have drawn lava for clarity?)
Below those, the magma didn't really break through the surface but did manage to push it up. This creates dome mountains.
The blue is where I had an ice age happen. The resulting glaciers didn't really create mountains, but instead left a very hilly landscape. Think northern England.
The magenta fault line represents where the (originally two separate) landmasses/tectonic plates collided millions of years ago. This created nice peaky fold mountains from one side to the other side of the continent.
The rest is relatively flat. But that doesn't mean there can't be mountains too! Maybe erosion created some nice plateaus. Who knows?
If you want to know more about mountain types (which will hopefully inspire you), I suggest visiting this page.
