My 1st World Map - Advice and Critique welcome

[Stìophan]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone could spare a few moments to give me some feedback for my world map - world of Xeon (pronounced ['xeɔn]). I've been mainly using Photoshop and following Artifexian's videos thus far.

Any advice would be welcome

Xeon - Tectonic Plates-v1.2_small.png

[Harrg]

Hey! Hurray, another tectonic geek.
All in all, this is a good start. The tectonic model seems logical to me. I'm not quite sure where Skardhyr is heading. If he is moving towards Quruma, then you should reconsider the types of the border. Somewhere there will be a fault. My main comment concerns the coastline, it does not correspond to tectonics. You expect to see similar landforms around continents that once collided and then disintegrated. Like the west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America for example. Island arcs or mountains like the Andes are also expected to be seen along the subduction line, where subduction goes under the continental crust.
Best of all, in terms of tectonics, you got the east coast of Osmor, where you were inspired by the east coast of Eurasia.

[johnvanvliet]

it looks like it is in equal area simplecylindrical projection and maps to a sphere well
so a very good start

keep up the good work

[Stìophan]

Thanks Harrg, yes I must admit I love tectonics! Regarding Osmor, I was initially wanting a 'Sakhalin' style island then before I knew it I had Kamchatka as well! Other shapes I borrowed are Baffin Island (the main landmass in Fjordhaerne) and Sognefjord (Norway), the main gulf on the west coast of Skardhyr.

Skardhyr was meant to be heading towards Qaruma and Osmor rifting from it, but looks like I need to rework that. So regarding the coastlines, is there any in particular or do you mean all of them in general?

[Stìophan]

Many thanks johnvanvliet, Gplates was the star of the show there!

[Harrg]

I mean the following. Most likely, island volcanic chains will appear along all active subduction zones. This will already greatly affect the coastline. For example along the northern and eastern subduction zone (?) Tyraethos. The same will probably happen along the Qashqavad subduction zone (there will probably even be mountains similar to the Andes) and so on. All this will greatly affect the landforms.
P.S. The eastern outlines of Jordhaerne will most likely coincide with the western outlines of Skadhyra as the mentioned coasts of Africa and South America.
You can of course ignore me, this is your world, do what you like.

[Stìophan]

Thanks Harrg, Tyraethos (and Lindhaenes) were actually taken from another project (which I did using the Saderan tut) and I did try to make the coast of Qashqavand echo it, must admit Skardhyr and Fjordhaerne does need looking at. I will definitely be adding some island groups along the subduction zones.

Many thanks again for the advice.

[Stìophan]

Here's an updated version based on pointers from Harrg and some revisions I thought of myself. Can anyone advise if it works? Many thanks in advance.

Xeon - Tectonic Plates-v1.3a_small.png

[Marcolino]

I like your map.

its my impression or Skardhyr look a little bit liek east europe? And Tyraethos look like our globe, in a mini scale.

[zoqaeski]

What level of realism are you aiming for? Without knowing what you're aiming for, I can't really give feedback that will tell you what you might want to hear, and I don't want to discourage you. It is, after all, your world, so you do have a lot of artistic license.

That being said, quite a few of the landmasses look very similar to Earth, particularly on the eastern side of Skardhyr (I can spot Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Japan). Qashkavand and Tyraethos are very circular-looking.

The plate motions look reasonable, but a lot of the coastlines look very fragmented and irregular, and don't appear to fit together as you would expect. The shapes of coastlines are very dependent on the geological and climactic history, so you won't get island arcs forming on the leading edge subduction zones nor will you get fjords in temperate or tropical climates.

Have you worked out a tectonic history of the world, if you are planning to do so? Worldbuilding Pasta has a great tutorial on how to develop this, with a supplementary guide on how to create this with GPlates. Artifexian over-simplifies a lot of details, and his tutorials can be quite inaccurate. If you're worldbuilding as part of another project (e.g. a story), then they're good enough to get a somewhat plausible world, but if you are worldbuilding for the sake of it and want the most realistic world you can create, then there's a whole world of research papers and applications and articles to explore.

If you want a much more realistic world, I would suggest:

• An Andean-type mountain range along the south-west coast of Qashqavand
• More plate boundaries (and micro-plates) to explain the hooked peninsula in the south of Qashqavand
• Lindhaenes looks out-of-place: it doesn't appear to have split off any neighbouring continents, and the huge number of islands can't easily be explained. Are they the peaks of a submerged landmass? A magical cataclysm that destroyed the continent? Same goes for Tyraethos.
• The southern continent looks just like Antarctica, with a few chunks taken out. Again, it doesn't appear to fit with any neighbouring continents.
• Fjordhaerne may have broken off from Skardhyr, but where is it going? The current scientific consensus is that slab pull from subduction zones is what causes plates to move, but less is known about what actually causes subduction zones to form in the first place. I'd replace the transverse boundaries at Qiol with a subduction zone that is pulling Fjordhaene towards it, and a back-arc basin to the north because Qashqavand is moving away from Fjordhaerne whilst also pulling the latter towards it.
• The island arc along the south eastern boundary of Qashqavand could be enlarged, as it is a trailing edge subduction zone
• It may be helpful to attempt to figure out why Skardhyr looks the way it does, particularly the large inland sea in the south. I'd have another plate boundary along that somewhere, either closing the sea (like the Mediterranean) or opening it (like the Tethys Sea in Pangaea).

Again, I'm not trying to be overly critical, so if hyper-realism is not your goal, you can ignore me. I don't want to pour cold water all over your project.