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What could be the best map making software for fantasy worlds with more than hundreds of countries?

Miaristan

Dreamer
Hi,

I ask this question because I need to make a map for my fantasy world. That said, I plan to make a fantasy world with about 400 countries and territories and most map making tools such as Inkarnate, Worldspinner, Azgaar's, and so on, seem not really adapted for creators who need to make very large maps.

The issue is I also want to identify the populations for each country/territory, but also the exact areas and population densities, but this seems impossible to do that with conventional tools, which is why I opted for programming in JavaScript (more specifically the leaflet library). In fact, what I wish to do is to find something like leaflet which could help me to generate fantasy maps with the information related to the location and area I will have provided through my Excel file.

So, thanks you, and have a good day!
 

Aldarion

Archmage
For me, best was GIMP. You can use it to create brushes which can later be used to create maps, even.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
It could be overkill but you might be looking for something like a GIS [Geographic Information System]. You create a map and then add a database behind that to tie all your information together. There are one to two free GIS but it is a lot of work.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
I used campaign cartographer once. I suspect it could do it. Though it been a long time since i used it. Going to look up GIS.

it this point ive just gone back to by hand in graph paper when it matters.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I used campaign cartographer once. I suspect it could do it. Though it been a long time since i used it. Going to look up GIS.

it this point ive just gone back to by hand in graph paper when it matters.
My preferred solution!
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
My maps are made with MS Paint. Because of the 'projecting a sphere onto a flat surface issue' I broke the world map into 40-degree sections that narrow towards the north - a degree of longitude at the equator would be 60 miles, while at +60 it would be just twenty miles. (the main maps run from +40 to about -15, 600x800 pixels.)

That said, fantasy environment, 400 countries...a lot of those are going to be city states, and a great many borders are going to be in continual flux. Conquest, treaties, and dynastic marriages will merge multiple nations into larger units, while rebellion and other calamities will turn supposedly united realms into regions of anarchy.
 

TheKillerBs

Maester
400 is not a large number of polities. There are about 200 independent countries in the world, and that includes the likes of Russia, China, and India. For reference, Russia could easily fit 26 Texas-sized polities. Texas, by the way, would be the 40th-largest country in the world were it independent.
 

Nighty_Knight

Troubadour
You can always do regions as well. I like using Inkarnate but it’s not perfect. But there are some great maps and I know a few that have done large scale maps and did a North, South, East, West separate maps for the same world, or a different map per continent.
 
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