Eldoran World Map (WIP, taking advice)

[Daia Maps]

Edit: Disregard the world's name. It will be changed since it's an already taken name, my bad .

Hey guys, how you all doing?

So recently I've been hit with a bout of inspiration and I wanna make a world map, but I want to go all in this time. I did some heavy research, looking at couple of artists, watching some videos and even researching about geography and geology. I even planned out tectonic plates when making this sketch.

The result below is the first sketch and I was wondering what you guys think. This world is gonna be a Golarion/Forgotten Realms kind of world, with magic and monsters and a bunch of different races and stuff, but I wanted the landmasses to be somewhat logica here. I have a general idea of where biomes and mountain ranges will go, and they all informed by the tectonic plates and their proximity to the equator. There are a few other things to consider of course, like wind and rain, but I'll figure that out after I get the landmasses right.

Anyway I'm looking for any kind of feedback that will make this thing more believable and aesthetically pleasing. Thanks in advance.

Eldoran.jpg

[Turambar]

Hey guys, how you all doing?

So recently I've been hit with a bout of inspiration and I wanna make a world map, but I want to go all in this time. I did some heavy research, looking at couple of artists, watching some videos and even researching about geography and geology. I even planned out tectonic plates when making this sketch.

The result below is the first sketch and I was wondering what you guys think. This world is gonna be a Golarion/Forgotten Realms kind of world, with magic and monsters and a bunch of different races and stuff, but I wanted the landmasses to be somewhat logica here. I have a general idea of where biomes and mountain ranges will go, and they all informed by the tectonic plates and their proximity to the equator. There are a few other things to consider of course, like wind and rain, but I'll figure that out after I get the landmasses right.

Anyway I'm looking for any kind of feedback that will make this thing more believable and aesthetically pleasing. Thanks in advance.

Eldoran.jpg

I really like the continent shapes and the coastal variety you have. I think they look very good. My only feedback is that the continent sizes and spacing are slightly too symmetrical, but this is a minor quibble. Perhaps you could fix this by making spacing out of the oceans separating the continents more than the other, or else shrinking the right hand continent a bit. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

[Tiluchi]

Looks like a great start! I always love when I can get a feel for the tectonic plates just from looking at the coastlines. If I have one minor critique it's that the mix of fjords and offshore islands (mostly on the northern coasts of the eastern and westernmost continents) looks a little unnatural compared to what I assume are equivalent areas on Earth- usually islands are much closer to the coast and mimic the overall coastline because of the mechanics of glaciation. Also, it's a bit hard to tell where your active margins are but usually they would have a fairly regular coastline on the subduction-ward side following the plate boundary (think the west coast of the Americas, or the southern margin of Indonesia), and a more irregular coastline on the passive side rather than being irregular all around. Either way this looks great, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops!

On an unrelated note, worth flagging this isn't the first Eldoran we've seen on the CG forum...

[Daia Maps]

Perhaps you could fix this by making spacing out of the oceans separating the continents more than the other, or else shrinking the right hand continent a bit. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

That's a good point, I was looking at it after you mentioned it and yeah, I'm thinking I got to change the sizes around a little bit. The Eastern Continent is supposed to be really big so I'm thinking I'll scale it up while scaling the middle continents down, although I must mention this is supposed to be an Atlas type of map, so a distortion on the sizes are to be expected. I might even make the westernmost continent a little smaller.

Thank you for your insight!

[Daia Maps]

If I have one minor critique it's that the mix of fjords and offshore islands (mostly on the northern coasts of the eastern and westernmost continents) looks a little unnatural compared to what I assume are equivalent areas on Earth- usually islands are much closer to the coast and mimic the overall coastline because of the mechanics of glaciation.

I might have been thrown off by zooming in too much on Google Maps. I used northern Canada and Russia as reference. Do you think that at this scale, it be better to just erase those little islands? I must point out that those two areas you mentioned are supposed to be mountainous areas, I used this website to guide me, aside from a few vids and Google Maps. But if it feels off to you I'd love to hear how I could fix that!

and a more irregular coastline on the passive side rather than being irregular all around.

I think my research is lacking a little bit here, because I'm not sure what this means (maybe cause English is my second language). I believe when you mentioned active margins you mean a more "smooth" coastline? Maybe I can make the westernmost coast on the western continent a single curve? Hope I'm being clear enough.

On an unrelated note, worth flagging this isn't the first Eldoran we've seen on the CG forum...

Ah man, that's on me for not researching the name. I honestly just mixed a bunch of syllables into a world sounding name and coincidentally ripped someone off . I'll be sure to change the name.

Thank you for all the tips and information, it really helped me out.

[Greason Wolfe]

My only thing would be.... If what you've posted is supposed to be an equirectangular projection, your polar areas are going to look very odd when wrapped around a globe. I am assuming, of course, that the open land area going off the top of the map is supposed to match up to the open area at the bottom. That will work fine if it is wrapped around a cylinder, which might be cool for a sci-fi/alien mega-structure sort of setting.

[Daia Maps]

My only thing would be.... If what you've posted is supposed to be an equirectangular projection, your polar areas are going to look very odd when wrapped around a globe. I am assuming, of course, that the open land area going off the top of the map is supposed to match up to the open area at the bottom. That will work fine if it is wrapped around a cylinder, which might be cool for a sci-fi/alien mega-structure sort of setting.

It's actually supposed to be a globe. You are right, My polar regions do look weird, I have to fix that.

Thanks for the observation.

[Turambar]

It's actually supposed to be a globe. You are right, My polar regions do look weird, I have to fix that.

Thanks for the observation.

I might try pulling the sketch into GProjector as a reference to help with fixing the poles

[Daia Maps]

I want to thank everyone for all the tips and feedback. I made some changes on the Fjords, hopefully making them a little more realistic. I also changed around the tectonics and consequently, the continents and islands, nothing major.

Overall changes were minor, I liked how the world looks so far. I also realized I don't want to bother with realism too much. The world is going to be high fantasy, in a late Renaissance period and this Atlas is going to be an in-world map, so inaccuracies can be excused. I'm basically going a semi-realistic, semi-stylized map.

This is how it's looking so far. Might make a few small changes to the landmasses, I'm still not sure on the middle of the westernmost continent.

Also the world is called Arcaeli now, hopefully meaning "Ark of Heaven" without butchering the Latin language (Blame Google translate).

Arcaelum 2.jpg

[Turambar]

I want to thank everyone for all the tips and feedback. I made some changes on the Fjords, hopefully making them a little more realistic. I also changed around the tectonics and consequently, the continents and islands, nothing major.

Overall changes were minor, I liked how the world looks so far. I also realized I don't want to bother with realism too much. The world is going to be high fantasy, in a late Renaissance period and this Atlas is going to be an in-world map, so inaccuracies can be excused. I'm basically going a semi-realistic, semi-stylized map.

This is how it's looking so far. Might make a few small changes to the landmasses, I'm still not sure on the middle of the westernmost continent.

Also the world is called Arcaeli now, hopefully meaning "Ark of Heaven" without butchering the Latin language (Blame Google translate).

Arcaelum 2.jpg

I like it! I think it looks much better. I assume you checked the poles as well?