Looking for some advice on a WIP map

[Elvis.Osmanovic]

Hi everyone!

Im not much of an artist but i recently started to plan my Fantasy Book that i want to write, and my proccess involves making a Map as the first step.
Its just a personal prefference but it makes averything alot easier if i can use a "factual" piece of information (map) as a basis of the Races, Cities, Cultures, Characters and subsequently the Plot of the story.


Now i was wondering if any of you can give me some advice on the matter. Just your personal opinion on how you would aproach worldbuilding in this instance.

I uploaded 2 maps...they are bassically the same, but have different "view" .... one is a close up on a part of the continent and the other is a continent in its "full glory"

The one where the continent is full i drawn up 2 more additions that i would like to add... the circle one is an island and the other one is a set of smaller circles which would be something like an Archipelago (like Stockholm Archipelago but more structured and "fantastic") but quite big and going from bigger island, narrowing to smaller and denser islands (Shattered Isles would be the name i might use for them).

In the Close-up map i havent shetched up any aditions but i would dress it up a little bit more just to look a bit nicer and richer.

The map would look much like our Earth itself. It will follow the same rules of geography as Earth.

Now what i would like from you is to just drop some knowledge and advice on me.

Bassically which one you preffer? Are the additions i mentioned neccessary or not? Would you do something different with pieces that are already there? Should i focus on smaller part of the map or maybe expand it a bit further?

I know its a bit vague asking this question but nevertheless i think you guys can come up with some help for me, im sure


Edit: If its any help, i would like my map to feature 3 geological units - Desert, Ice/Tundra, Grassland/hills. Again following the North-Ice, Mid-Grass/hill, South-Desert....BUT if you think that is also a bit derrivative you can advise me against it

[Charerg]

Well, regarding your questions, I think the best person to answer them is yourself. Take the suggested archipelago, for example. Is it necessary? Not from a mapping point of view, but depending on the story you want to tell, it might be necessary. You need to consider which kind of peoples/cultures you want your story/world to have, and what kind of environment would they live in.

Re: Map scale
Again, whether you should concentrate on the bigger picture or on the smaller scale is up to you. If you want to world-build in greater detail, then I suppose the bigger picture is the way to go, but if you want to focus on telling a story, then the smaller scale could be the better choice, as that will allow you to focus on a smaller area and better represent individual nations and cities.

Re: Geological (Climatological?) units
Here, you'll have to decide how much "realism" do you want. As this is a fantasy map, it's perfectly fine to do as you suggested, although it's a bit simplistic, and just put deserts in the south and so forth. If you want to bring more realism into the picture, you'll have to decide where your continent is located in terms of latitude. Once you know that, you should be able to roughly determine what the climate might be like in various areas. Although you should also have a basic topographic map (like where are the major mountain chains/plateaus and how high are they approximately?), since elevations have a large effect on climate.

Edit:
Oh, and welcome to the Guild, of course!

[waldronate]

As Charerg points out, there are many questions that you need to answer before someone can do much for you. A sketch and location on a planet (or at least broad mountain/plain/sea and hot/warm/cold lines across the map) will help immensely, as will a scale.

If not, you're likely to get random garbage like this:

(and nobody wants that).

[Elvis.Osmanovic]

You see guys i knew the question is hard to answer, bassically, in my stead. But you both provided enough information to help me plan this along quite easier.

Thanks alot!!

[Elvis.Osmanovic]

Hey guys! so ive decided what the map is gonna be...

Its gonna be a nordic setting. Bassically Ice > Tundra > Grassland/hills... Generally North > Mid layer of our earth but mostly Icy Nordic Tundra. And since the map will be made in old parchment style, the color wont be present so Describing the world will befall on my writing skills, but i guess nordic setting does have some unique Geology rules that i would like to get right, mostly mountains and rivers

Ive mocked up some positions of Rivers and Mountains.. Mountains are there just to mark the position where ill make them more detailed and "lifelike" later on, but i needed them just for Rivers positioning.

Since my Geology Skills are quite lacking, i wondered if anyone can shed some light no the matter.

1. Just wondering is BASIC Mountain setup i mocked up, something that would actualy be "realistic" comapared to Earth.
2. Are rivers done somewhat correctly and should there be more of them? Or more lakes, since there is only 1.

I know its fantasy world, but i do base it on Earth. And getting things right actually is somewhat important to me, just to shut down the voice in my head that says "dude, thats not really right"

Thanks all!

P.S map will be made to be "Tolkienesque"..bassically old parchment style

P.S.2 - i see Waldronate is a River Police Officer. I hope you dont get too angry at me i tried to obide to some rules i know..like flowing from "Mountains to Sea" and to never separate flow of the river going toward the source of the river (mountain) P

[waldronate]

A scale would still be helpful (is this map 100 km across? 1000? 5000?).

It's hard to say much about the mountains without a knowledge of the map size, but they look reasonable at first glance.

Your rivers, though, are constructed backwards. Very broadly speaking, smaller rivers flow down from higher ground like mountains and join together to form larger rivers as they flow downhill to their final destination (the ocean, in this case). Take a look at the earlier map that I posted and you'll see what I mean.

[Elvis.Osmanovic]

A scale would still be helpful (is this map 100 km across? 1000? 5000?).

It's hard to say much about the mountains without a knowledge of the map size, but they look reasonable at first glance.

Your rivers, though, are constructed backwards. Very broadly speaking, smaller rivers flow down from higher ground like mountains and join together to form larger rivers as they flow downhill to their final destination (the ocean, in this case). Take a look at the earlier map that I posted and you'll see what I mean.

Oh man i saw your map on my Mobile phone and didnt really zoomed in enough. Thats sooo helpfull...i just now realise fully what you did there...i must say essentially you made everything for me.

Since it is an old parchment style map i wont do as many as you did there but i see how you made em flow and ill deffinatelly "borrow" a few of them.

As for scale..im not entirelly sure how ill do it. I want to use Time Units (days,weeks,fortnights, months) to describe the distance, but i will deffinatelly research how far does a day of moderate horseback riding take you, then ill be able to determine the scale alot better.

This is the first time im doing soo much preparation and research before even writing a Novel (i guess that comes with maturity) so i want to make all the neccesity i feel i need to make this as best as i can. And i took a D&D approach to doing this.. Bassically do quite a bit of worldbuilding, then set the story inside the world i created, altough i do have a general idea in the back of my mind to guide me somewhat.

Might not be the best way, but at this point its the only way that occured in my mind and that i can benefit from.

Really Thanks man! Really appreciate it!!

p.s. i found this thread https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=19730 Her on Cartographers guild, and i saw your name pop up in it. so i guess your familiar with it (even tough its an old thread). It should help me alot making this proccess go easier

[Charerg]

Well, as mountains would be mostly influenced by plate tectonics, it's impossible to say how realistic the layout is without knowing the tectonic boundaries and such. That said, the mountains look plausible. It might be worth it to consider how high you want the various mountain chains to be, though. Typically the really high mountain ranges tend to occur at active continental boundaries, whereas older mountain chains tend to be lower. In your case, perhaps the western mountain chain could be a result of prior tectonic movements, whereas the eastern chain could represent an active boundary (where two plates are colliding). That is just my suggestion, though.

Another thing worth pointing out is that if you want a "Nordic" (ie. Viking) culture, you probably don't want to fill the entire thing with tundra. Historically, the Nordic peoples were farmers (occupying the coastlands and southern parts of Scandinavia), whereas the tundra regions of Scandinavia (northern interior and the mountainous tundra of the Scandes) were occupied by the reindeer-herding Sami. Also, as there are no trees growing in the tundra, it might be a bit difficult to build those longships that played such a large role in the Viking era.

Finally, the amount of lakes would largely depend on whether your world has experienced an Ice Age in the past. Much of Canada and Scandinavia is full of lakes (quite often shaped like long scars), as a result of the moving glaciers carving vast valleys in the landscape. The fjords of Norway would be the obvious example of this process, but the same process created hundreds of lakes as well. Although you may wish to only depict the major ones on your map (depending on scale). Ofc this is only really valid if you had that Ice Age, otherwise I guess the landscape would be a bit more "normal".

[waldronate]

The rivers on the original were for mountains that weren't really having anything to do with your desired second map. Using that second map as a base, rivers would look more like this:


These are just broad suggestions based on very rough "land is higher here" simulation.

[Elvis.Osmanovic]

Thanks Wald!

Im gonna do as much as i can now and post progress periodically