Anybody care to share their map?

[Ghost]

Yeah, I love the mountains. I'd like to see the pictures joined up. Maybe you could resize them for a smaller map and save it as a separate file just so people could get an idea of what it all looks like as one piece?

Good job, ascanius

 

[ascanius]

Ok I scaled the image to provide a full view of all four regions PW abcdefg12345 at Login to a private Photobucket.com album

And I sort of hand drew the mountains. Using GIMP I created 10 mountains by hand, or mouse if you will, then saved them together as an animated brush. There are actually two types of mountains large and small, along with the hills, and all the trees. I did the same thing will all of them and made them animated brushes.

 

[Shockley]

Obviously this is still a work in progress, but this is the core continent on which my story will take place (sadly, most of it will happen in the top left corner, where you have the peninsula and the pseudo-isthmus). I've done way more than my original region, and that's how I like my creative process to function.

 

[Telcontar]

Very detailed coastline. How was this created?

Of course, it's also missing some other bits I usually like to look at... mountains and such. No doubt you have an idea of where those are even though they aren't on the map.

 

[Shockley]

I use MS Paint.

 

[Telcontar]

Hah! Certainly not the answer I expected. The coasts look almost fractally generated - that must have taken some time.

 

[Shockley]

Probably five hours in total.

It's a simple method I use: I make as big an image as possible (it's not clear because Photobucket automatically resizes, but the original of that is several times larger than my computer screen) and then zoom in as close as I can. I take about a minute to draw a winding line down the the bit I've zoomed in on, fashion lakes or islands if so desired, and then scroll down to the next piece.

When I zoom out, it has a very natural look. Up close, there are a lot of straight lines, unintentional curves, etc. but that reminds me of how stuff actually looks.

 

[Jabrosky]

I drew this in MS Paint for a story I'm plotting:

The story centers around a conflict between the kingdoms of Shinar and Cush. Shinar has a Mesopotamian flavor whereas Cush, as its name may suggest, is Nubian in style. Among the myriad cultural differences between these two civilizations, perhaps the most fundamental is religious: the Shinarim worship the Moon God whereas the Cushau favor a Sun Goddess.

In case it isn't intuitive, brown areas are mountains, dark red lines are trade routes, black dots are settlements and stars are capitals.

 

[Mindfire]

Nicely done Jabrosky. Familiar, yet different. Like our North Africa in an alternate universe. You might want to give Shinar slightly less familiar names though. Most of them are just unfamiliar enough to the general public to be fine, but "Ishmael" might be a tad too familiar. But on the other hand, I think it's cool where you pulled all the names from. I recognize most of the Northern ones.

 

[Mindfire]

Here's my map.

Click Image for Higher Resolution.​

My mountains aren't that good and my forest/trees need work, but I think my rivers and costlines are decent. You'll notice two landmasses on the left that have no names or geological features. I haven't really decided what to do with them or what to put on them yet. I just put them there to take up space make the map feel more "complete". Without them it just looked to fake and square-ish. Also, that dashed line in the sea there is a the border between Beorgia and Elyssia. I didn't want people to think that those lands across the bridge were also part of Beorgia just because they were in the north.

So what do you guys think of it? I really want to get someone who's a better artist/cartographer to remake it for me, but I don't have the money to pay for a professional. For the present my genius is limited by my art skills.

 

[Jabrosky]

Sorry, Mindfire, but I'm getting an 403 error message when I click on your link. Could you please fix it or host the map on another website?

 

[Mindfire]

Sorry, Mindfire, but I'm getting an 403 error message when I click on your link. Could you please fix it or host the map on another website?

Fixed now. Quoted here for your convenience:

Here's my map.

Click Image for Higher Resolution.​

My mountains aren't that good and my forest/trees need work, but I think my rivers and costlines are decent. You'll notice two landmasses on the left that have no names or geological features. I haven't really decided what to do with them or what to put on them yet. I just put them there to take up space make the map feel more "complete". Without them it just looked to fake and square-ish. Also, that dashed line in the sea there is a the border between Beorgia and Elyssia. I didn't want people to think that those lands across the bridge were also part of Beorgia just because they were in the north.

So what do you guys think of it? I really want to get someone who's a better artist/cartographer to remake it for me, but I don't have the money to pay for a professional. For the present my genius is limited by my art skills.

 

[Mindfire]

I'm looking for some suggestions about what to do with those two mini-continents loitering over there. Originally I was going to have a whole different continent with a parallel story running on it, but now I'm thinking I might just use those two. Do you think that, given the mountain ranges being where the are, it's plausible enough that any cultures on those two land masses would have little or no interaction with the other three? Also, I think that one in the lower left is going to start out as a penal colony, kinda like Australia did.

 

[Jabrosky]

I do have a problem with the river system in Elyssia. Rivers may join but they don't split like that except at deltas.

 

[ascanius]

Um Jabrosky is right rivers will take the path of least resistance and so rarely split. They can split like that on occasion such as when the flow of water exceeds the path of least resistance, such as a flood. Then the river can split, but it is not that common. also as to your question about the two landmasses being isolated. I think the northern one it is plausable due to the mountains in the northern portion. However south in Mavaria I would say that it is unlikely unless the distance is much to great or they never discovered ship building. Hey Do you want to make a digital version of the map?

 

[Mindfire]

I do have a problem with the river system in Elyssia. Rivers may join but they don't split like that except at deltas.

That's because it is a delta. A man-made delta.

I traced the Nile Delta to use as a model. The river's source is farther south, into the forest. The landscape is kinda like a bowl. High elevations in the north and far south, low elevations in the middle. But the true explanation for the rivers branching out like that is that they all used to be one river, but then the Elyssians, the most industrialized of my nations, took on a huge irrigation project and over the course of decades they forced the one river to branch into four, then added more branches onto those until they reached the point you see on the map. Those rivers also help to define the borders of each count's respective jurisdiction.

 

[Mindfire]

Um Jabrosky is right rivers will take the path of least resistance and so rarely split. They can split like that on occasion such as when the flow of water exceeds the path of least resistance, such as a flood. Then the river can split, but it is not that common. also as to your question about the two landmasses being isolated. I think the northern one it is plausable due to the mountains in the northern portion. However south in Mavaria I would say that it is unlikely unless the distance is much to great or they never discovered ship building. Hey Do you want to make a digital version of the map?

Thanks ascanius! And actually the Mavarians have discovered shipbuilding, but they pretty much keep to themselves. The seas are dominated by the Beorgians. And I'd love to make a digital version, but I simply don't have the required skills.

And I should probably say that this map is not to scale.

 

[Shockley]

Showing off my map inspired me to finish laying out the political regions. I'll be the first to admit that my map is far larger than my story warrants - any action I relate will probably occur in Argantar, though with the possibility that it will spread into Nastrund or (and this is something I think I'd enjoy writing) into the regions I labeled as the Wastes and Old Abenar. Most of these areas I will never write about, and I included them for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to have a proper sense of Argantar when I write my story. I tend to show the Argantarians as being particularly powerful, which is not how I envisioned them - the map helps me keep them in their respective place as a relatively small country.

2. If necessary, I have nearby countries pre-named.

3. This is more of a personal issue: The first world I ever created in my head was Imar, and I'm willing to admit that Imar is just an anagram for Mari, one of the ancient Sumerian cities. The second world I created was Eskandria, which is distinctly similar to medieval Arabian culture. So, by making this map, I have now codified all but one of my fantasy worlds into one plane of existence. That's something I'm proud of.

 

[Mindfire]

That's a BIG map.

 

[Telcontar]

... and I'm willing to admit that Imar is just an anagram for Mari

Whatever works. Plenty of names in fantasy and Scifi are anagrams or otherwise allusions to real-world things. After a while it just because hard to think up new names for everything. It doesn't really matter. Once you put enough of your own invention behind the name, it becomes a symbol for what you created, not what it relates to in the real world.

So, by making this map, I have now codified all but one of my fantasy worlds into one plane of existence. That's something I'm proud of.

Neat. That's something I'll never be able to do...

I like the political divisions, they definitely help bring the map to life.