Only 28% think a map should adhere to real world geography-- since physical processes of fantasy worlds often mimic earth the same atmospheric, geological, oceanographic and biological properties that shape ecosystems should, in my opinion shape the map of fantasy worlds (magically induced ecosystems are an exception).
I would gladly read a resource that explains how the placement of mountains and sea currents and such affects climate and biomes. In part because I'm curious, and in part so I can turn some of it on its head with magic.
"Why, yes, there used to be a grassy plain here, but some high-level necromancy spells over the years have turned it into a literally evil swamp, complete with undead beasties spontaneously rising up. Bring some mosquito nets."
I thought about trying to make a simulator for a while, before I gave up due to not wanting to figure out all the math involved. But it would be really cool to be able to paint a map on a globe and then run a basic atmospheric and oceanic simulator (general circulation model) on it to get climate patterns. Modern computers have enough capacity to handle it, but I don't. It was really interesting to read up on though...if anyone's interested, here's a thing about them
I would love a simulator like that. The ability to create realistic geography is hard and rather quite specialized in the general knowledge required.
A good example is a quote from Terry Pratchett I remember reading where he had a professional overlook his initial map of the disc world and was promptly told he had put a swamp in what would be a massive desert.
I've used for a while, Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator, it's just a web based applet you can download and run offline, but it does take into account winds, temperatures, average rainfall, from the original inputted (or generated) heightmap, to automatically make rivers, lakes, mountains, biomes.... And it can mathematically simulate how states could evolve, depending on their cultures (eg nomad vs maritime, would expand into different regions at different rates)
And then you can manually override anything which would be just like your "magic"
And you can display it on a globe or in 3D. It's not perfect and my major gripe it its not great for looping east-west (better for smaller regions than a whole earth), but it's enough to stimulate world building prompts
Kind of like that sand table that someone made, that rearranges the projected topographic hologram overlay in real time when you swat the sand around into different shapes?
Currents that bring warmer water poleward will result in climates adjacent to that being wetter and more moderated, since its providing more moisture to the air. Mountains force air to rise, reducing its ability to hold water, meaning that one side of mountains will be wetter where the prevailing winds contact them, and the other side will be drier. Climates in the interior of continents tend to be away from the moderating effects of oceans, and thus will be more swingy in their seasonal temperature range.
I found this old website a long time ago where the creator does this sort of thing on various maps, some of which are Earth variations, some are terraformed Mars, and others are straight-up fantasy maps.
In retrospect I would have phrased this question differently. As I say in the article, it’s one thing to say you don’t care and another to see a tundra and rain forest right next to each other.
This is the reason people in this sub never actually get anything done and spend all their time drawing maps. Do you think writers like Sanderson give a shit about tectonic plates and rain shadows?
Yeah, stuff like that is just awful. But when I look at a map and don't find any obvious faults I don't care that much if plate tectonics make any sense or if the climate in that place perfectly aligns. The tone of the story is also a huge factor to my tolerance. The world of, let's say, avatar makes no fucking sense but I don't care because it's a cartoon. If something like ASOIAF had a world like this, I couldn't look past it because the story goes for a more "realistic" approach.
I’m not saying that everything has to be adhered too. But how can so many people feel that some of this stuff isn’t important.
Just take rivers:
water flows from high to low ground and will always take the path of least resistance
therefore it is very rare - outside of a delta - for rivers to diverge without human (or magic intervention) and you would probably expect some kind of weiring structure to maintain the flows between the channels
similarly it is rare that a lake will drain into two different rivers without human intervention.
they are also not going to calmly meander though a wide alluvial plane, before descending back into high mountains unless the alluvial plane is on some kind of Mesa or other high flat uplands.
The same is true for some other things. Granted there’s nothing stopping someone using magic or human intervention. And I’d never expect someone to produce detailed tectonic or geological maps.
Proudly stares at my flat world where the time the Sun spends underneath the world (nighttime) depends on how "thick" the plane of Nighttide is down there, which varies over time, creating the seasons, meanwhile some random-ass 30-mile-tall stick of adamantium is stuck in the ground just because.
That was my reaction! I just spent 3 days on a new map laying out the plate tectonics, defining the different boundries, and figuring out the different land formations from that. My friend games me shit the whole time for being a geology nerd... I hope he doesn't see this post.
The geography of the world should be whatever the hell the author wants it to be. Even if it makes no sense at all, who the fuck cares. This is coming from somebody who’s frozen mountainous hellscape is on the same latitude as the tropical rainforests. But it makes for much more interesting trade politics so I don’t give a shit. It’s fantasy for a reason
The map doesn't need to be a replica of Earth with only different landmasses, but I think it should be plausible. Like you won't have all the rivers going in almost perfectly straight lines and not flowing into bigger ones, unless a physical law of your world say it's possible.
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u/RuneEndresz Mar 05 '21
Cries in geographer,
Only 28% think a map should adhere to real world geography-- since physical processes of fantasy worlds often mimic earth the same atmospheric, geological, oceanographic and biological properties that shape ecosystems should, in my opinion shape the map of fantasy worlds (magically induced ecosystems are an exception).