After Empire

[Skylark]

This is a map I am making for a game that I am running.

There was once a large empire that ruled most of this continent, and about 200 years ago, the empire collapsed and split into several different kingdoms and city-states.

The Northern Kingdoms are Viking-inspired. Qasan is a mainly desert kingdom with fertile river valleys and coastline. Auskara compromises of four city-states that are constantly at odds with one another. And Biambe is an old ancient city with vast jungle and forest lands.

Campaign is ongoing so not everything is concrete. This is actually the 2nd version of this map. Next, I am meaning to add more names and some color, borders, etc.

[ChickPea]

You're off to a nice start, though a couple of points for consideration...

You've got some issues with your rivers splitting where, generally, they don't do that (although some of them may be deltas?) Take a look at this thread for some help on how rivers usually work.

Do you plan to include a scale to give people an idea of the size of the land?

What software are you using? Some of your lines look a bit pixellated and maybe could do with a little antialiasing.

I like your land shape and your mountain ranges look realistic to my untrained eye. I think this will look good coloured, and I'm looking forward to your next update.

[Josiah VE]

Nice! I basically second all ChickPea said.
I noticed the brush you used for the mountain ranges looks a little repeating.

[Skylark]

You're off to a nice start, though a couple of points for consideration...

You've got some issues with your rivers splitting where, generally, they don't do that (although some of them may be deltas?) Take a look at this thread for some help on how rivers usually work.

Do you plan to include a scale to give people an idea of the size of the land?

What software are you using? Some of your lines look a bit pixellated and maybe could do with a little antialiasing.

I like your land shape and your mountain ranges look realistic to my untrained eye. I think this will look good coloured, and I'm looking forward to your next update.

Thank you so much for the feedback. Yeah I've heard this before in regards to rivers in my maps but was never sure how to fix it (or my thinking). That thread you linked helped a lot!

Gonna go do some fixing and pruning.

In a couple of spots I wanted to have a delta but wasn't sure how I'd represent that.

[Skylark]

Also not exactly 100 percent on the scale yet. Was making this for a Dungeon World campaign on the fly and I really liked the shape and all. I'll do some research on travel times.

[ChickPea]

Some more on rivers...

Mostly, if you think of a river system like a tree, you won't go far wrong. You have a trunk that splits into branches, and those may split again into smaller branches and so on. Therefore, start your rivers from hilly/mountainous areas and have the tributaries flow downhill, where they meet and merge together. Eventually there'll be only one 'trunk' flowing out to the sea. Some other general purpose rules are: make sure your lakes have only one outflow. You can have two or more rivers flowing into a lake but there is usually only one outlet. Also, don't have rivers flowing from one side of a landmass to the other, unless it's a man-made waterway.

There are always exceptions to every rule, and I'm no geology expert, but if you stick with the above guidelines, you'll be fine. If you want to do something more complex, but aren't sure if it's plausible, just ask. There are a number of very knowledgeable people who post regularly and I'm sure would be able to help you. Or just say wave your hands and say 'it's magic'. That covers all possible eventualities!

One final thing about the scale... not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but we have a discussion thread titled 'How far a horse travels in one day'. You might find some useful info there.

[Skylark]

Ok changed the rivers quite a bit. Got rid of a couple of lakes. Tried a first pass of borders and trying some colors.

Added more place names. Might change the font for the cities.

Small note: Bottom Lake (need a better name) in the center is supposed to be crater from an asteroid impact. Hence, the free city of Fallen Star just south of it.

[Robulous]

Interesting, I'm assuming your "Bottom Lake" would be something like the Dead Sea. As an endorheic lake (one that water flows into, but not out of) it would be pretty salty, depending on its size and latitude. Given it's slap bang in a desert I would assume it's hot and therefore evaporation would make it salty.

I think your mountains are fine though need a little variation, but next time have a go at drawing your own mountains. I'm no great draughtsman myself so I previously relied on brush stamps, but with a bit of practice it's quite simple to draw effective mountains. Videos like this on youtube really demystified it for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G_2_OJPUGY

[Skylark]

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah didn't think about the salinity of the lake, but I like it.

I've drawn out mountains before on paper. I thought being uniform is cool, but maybe not as much. I did make my own brushes which is fun. Maybe I'll just make several?

[blue adventurer]

Very cool lore and map,I myself always create lore when i draw map too :=)