How Do You Decide Where To Place Certain Recources & Materials?

[Vidgange]

So, I'm trying to make a realistic fantasy world populated with different cultures and creating a history spanning thousands of years. And for that I need a world map. A realistic world map. Something that's struck me while doing some research is that it seems as if all the early civilizations had (easy) access limestone, and that this material has been used very frequently throughout history. The same goes for bronze, which is an alloy of tin and copper, something the early civilizations DIDN'T have easy access to, and therefore had to trade. I've had this thought about gold, iron, silver and many other materials as well.

My question is, do you take these things into consideration when making your world? Do you think of where limestone is located? What kind of soil certain parts of the world has? Where metal is found? And if you DO take this into consideration, how do you decide all of that??

[stormweasel]

I'm not speaking as a map-maker given I'm new myself but you might find sites like this interesting

Limestone: Rock Uses, Formation, Composition, Pictures
Iron Ore: Sedimentary Rock - Pictures, Definition & More

You'll see that most (not all) of the iron and limestone for example formed in sedimentary rocks in shallow oceans. So you might want to imagine or map areas that were once shallow seas, and then through tectonic activity (movements of the earth's crust or other natural processes, were raised above the water. These could have been buried by organic material over time, then running water might expose them, and acids formed from the water and decaying organic material would have eaten into it (forming caves). I'm guessing the earliest inhabitants followed the water, and discovered limestone etc by accident - as a result of proximity to where they lived- but once discovered, and its usefulness recognized, more sophisticated societies might set up to take advantage of these resources.

That's my 2 cents anyway.

[Vidgange]

Thank you very much for that information! I guess it's just a matter of knowing how your world looked like before its current state... Man, that's a lot of job!

[stormweasel]

You probably don't have to - you might create a map based on the needs of your story or game for example. You said realistic and those were my thoughts. One other thing I have learned though with my writing -don't overthink things. Just do them. If you are like me you can drown in the details. Decide how much you need to do but if you find yourself overthinking and doing nothing then just draw a map -simple. Then ask for feedback and perfect a little at a time. Sometimes we try to 'think it perfect' but never actually do it -or at least that has been my problem.