Aeterna: Home of the Slumbering gods...(WIP)

[ladiestorm]

Larysians have been dreaming of the sleeping gods for centuries. As the moon soars the skies, some are transported to a place lethargic and dormant...a world frozen in time.

As the power of the gods recede, so does the realm they call home. Dreamers see this plane shrinking. The gods, themselves are in terrible danger... but who can save the gods?

This is a work in progress, and I'm taking my time with this one. I've always enjoyed Mike Schley's style, and I'm using this map to become more familiar with it. I'm using cc3+ to make this map.

At this point, in my journey to make better maps...I understand for the most part, how rivers flow... and how forests progress. I'm most concerned right now, with my mountain rangess, and my terrains. For example... what is the difference between grasslands and plains? Marshes and Swamps? How do you know where to put the plains? or grass lands or steppes, for that matter?
Any assistance with these questions would be most appreciative.

Aeternalrg.PNGAeternalrg.PNG

[ladiestorm]

So I've done some work on this, sorry I haven't posted anything on it lately, but I've been working on the lite mapping challenge, and the uncharted island I was asked to make. But it's time to get back to this map, and so I have.

I still have the effects turned off, while I work on the main map. And again, feel free to comment, like, rate, or bolt as you see fit

Aeterna03lrg.PNG

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

[Bogie]

This map is coming along great. Mike Schley's graphics are a big improvement to CC3. Keep up the good work!

[ladiestorm]

I've always liked Mike Schley's style, from the bits I have seen in modules and stuff, but it's not as easy to use as it looks. It sort of has a whimsical feel to it, which is why I'm using it for this 'plane' that my players may, one day, visit. (If they survive my campaign long enough to get there!).

I'm also remaking my continental maps, putting them in one large world map, than I can then turn into regional maps. I'm using Herman Weilink's style for those... that's just recently been added to cc3+, and I intend to take full advantage of it!

[Corvus Marinus]

What is the scale of this map? Like, arctic circle to the equator? Or is this a relatively small territory? Assuming you want a semi-realistic, earthlike map, there's not much I can say about the climate zones you've placed until I get a general idea of that.

The deserts are the one thing that stand out to me immediately as problematic. The peninsular desert looks unlikely to me, given that it has large ocean spaces on both sides and no mountains; the southern desert is also rather oddly situated. When deserts stand beside oceans, they're generally on west coasts around the 30th parallel. Prairie/steppe, to answer your direct question, occurs most in continental interiors where there's nothing blocking the rain but either it's too far from the coast or at an improper latitude to receive all that much of it. Or, to put it more briefly, dry but not desert dry. You can also have plains due to human deforestation activity.

You've got a river in the upper right that appears to make a complete loop--an impossibility, though it's possible the mountain is just blocking their different sources.

[tilt]

Looking really good. Don't know about climates so I'll leave that to Corvus' comment ... the lake in the upper right corner have a river coming out of it that splits in two - rivers never split (deltas an exception) they only come together

[eleyana]

I really like the map , the only thing I'm a bit dubious is the coastline.

At the moment it looks weird to have a flat coastline with such detailed sideways terrain elements.

[ladiestorm]

Okay, there seems to be a bit of misconception here... let me give a bit of explanation on this map.

This is NOT an 'earthlike' map. This is one of the celestial planes. And it's slowly disappearing. But this plane was created and maintained by the gods. And each god shaped a region according to their preferences. So there is no 'arctic circle' or 'equator' as such... there are only regions shaped by one god or another according to what pleased him/her.

@Corvus Morinus - The desert on the southern peninsula you spoke of? It isn't actually a desert. It's more like a wasteland? Badlands? And the hills are actually taller than what they are represented... Mike Schley doesn't have any hills taller than what I've used.

I'm also trying to find the river that you mentioned that loops? I can't find it. Unless you are talking about the long river that actually has many smaller rivers that feeds into it? The one that starts north west of the castle? It starts in the mountains, then meanders south east that then 'splits', and meanders again to the east, where it's fed by other, smaller rivers also coming out of the mountain range? Or are you talking about the two rivers on the 'dragon head' peninsula? I'm not sure which river you are talking about.

@tilt - I know that rivers never 'split'... except when they do! There are many occurrences in the US alone where rivers do, actually split, and not just into deltas. It's unusual, to be sure, but it does happen . Now, for the two rivers that split here... well, the one that splits just out of the mountains, that's fairly self explanatory, but the one I think you are referring to, is the one river meandering through the forest that splits east of the farmland on my largest continent. If and when I get around to creating the regional maps for that area, you will actually see that there are some smaller lakes in that area... too small for the 'world' map. That is actually planned out, because in the center of those smaller lakes is one of the gods' temples

@eleyana - you are absolutely correct Once I start working with the effects, you will see a change in the coastline. I'm just waiting to do that last, I want to know where everything is going to be, before I start using the effects.

Now, here is the next update

Aeterna05lrg.PNG

[Corvus Marinus]

In that case, I think you can do whatever you like with climates.

Also, I think I understand now what you were trying to do with that river split. I did not realize the river was supposed to be flowing east rather than west from that small mountainous area. As others have pointed out, this is a really unlikely configuration. But in a world created by divine or magical forces, realism isn't necessarily going to be your priority.

[ladiestorm]

Well, one of my friends from the profantasy site caught one major blunder that I missed. My scaling was off from one continent to the other. They matched within each continent but the left side of my map was scaled smaller than the right side. How did I miss that, especially since I was paying attention to my scaling? So what I've done, is to completely redraw the left side of my map. I'm still working on it, so my continent edges still have that annoying blue line. I will be removing it before I declare it finished, but this map is now mostly done. Just the finishing touches and the effects to do.

Aeterna06lrg.PNG