I think today... I'll do some worldbuilding for the fantasy world I'm making
worldbuilding, a map
I drew out the map of the lands for the fantasy world I'm creating
I haven't got many details of the cultures or anything yet, but now I have this map I can more easily work things out.
Each hex in the map is ~250km across, meaning that this map has a total area of
(34 × 250) × (25 × 250) = 53,125,000 km²
which is around the size of Eurasia (assuming I did the maths correctly)
worldbuilding, some assorted details
* The seas beyond this map are endless in every direction - there are occasional islands, but no other known continents
* In the middle of the map, you'll notice a C shaped island with some smaller islands poking out of the inner curve.These islands are perfectly curved - this is not the natural state of them, but rather the result of a several hundred year project by the kobolds who live there
worldbuilding, the weather
the weather of this world is shaped like a spiral, alternating between zones of coldness and ice and zones of warmth and humidity, with the spiral centred on the middle of the map
worldbuilding, a digital version of the map
worldbuilding, a digital version of the map
@gwyfyndraig Have you seen the fractal map makers around? Or did you generate that by hand?
my map making process
@Canageek I made it by hand, following this:
1. Print off some hex paper
2. Draw approximate shapes of the continents along hex lines
3. erase 3-6 hexes, redraw with details
4. if it looks crap, redo that section
5. repeat 3-4 until the entire map is done
6. scan
7. trace over the drawing in Krita
attached is the map as it looked after step 2 https://dragon.style/media/AkRWxIsuuDYamfhRKcc
response, long
@Canageek that's not really the same end result, because:
* it can't make interesting shapes like the spiral on the right continent, or the claw just next to it
* it can't help me think of and imagine ideas while I'm drawing it - for example the islands closest to the middle? I decided they're shaped to be as smoothly curved as possible by the kobolds who live there. I wouldn't have thought of that with a generic map. or notice that in my original hex map, there were only 2 continents, whereas in the digital there's a channel between the two largest landmasses on the left - by reconsidering and adding that channel, it gave me a chance to think about the civilisations that live around it, what wars and conflicts they've been on, how trade works, what the climate of that region is like
* I like drawing maps like this, it's really really fun
* my digital map also secretly still has a hex grid under it, which means when I go to draw natural features, or language boundaries, or nation boundaries? I can just follow the hexes again, to get a general shape, then add details later, which greatly assists the design process
response, long
@gwyfyndraig That sounds really cool!
my map making process
@gwyfyndraig Check this one out! http://donjon.bin.sh/world/ you'll kind of get the same end result, but in any map projection you want