# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Regional/World Mapping >  My world - The Everlandias

## LonewandererD

Hey guys, i'm going to completely redo my world, which isn't a real bug issue as i have barely started mapping my world in the first place.

Anyway, instead of posting my three continent seperately i'm going to do my world, the Everlandias, all in one thread. At the moment i'm working on a colourscheme for my western continent of Adallia. I've been screwing around in photoshop and experimenting with Ascensions tutorials, great tutorials by the way, and have come up with this Practice Map.

Its a good start but it still needs work. Firstly, I want to know if anyone has a good way of colouring areas to look like marshland, my attempts haven't been working for me, too plain. Secondly, does anyway have a suggestion as how to make the open green area in the bottom right look like sweeping grasslands? At the moment they look a bit dull. Thirdly, should i make the forested areas darker? They need to look dense yet lively and luscious, for want of a better word, as Adallia is a very rainy place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-D-

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## Steel General

Looking pretty good so far, the green is a little over-saturated for my taste, but that's just me  :Smile: 

You might want to check out the Genetica Viewer from Spiral Graphics, it comes with aa whole bunch of different textures that you can manipulate to some degree. There are a lot of nice textures included with it. 

I use them all of the time. One in particular ('Just Add Bison') may work for you.

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## Ascension

For marshland I've been messing around with some new techniques...try them and see what you think...I did these on my Jasmine Coast map in the top right corner (this is just grayish because it's supposed to be haunted as opposed to marshy).  Grab a big airbrush (I use the airbrush soft round 300 or 100), set the flow low, around 10-20% and paint in some black on a new layer above the land.  Set this layer to Hue...this will turn everything that is underneath of the painted area to become a grayscale.  If you then reduce the opacity and let some color just barely peek through then you can get some nice effects.  Lastly, I'll duplicate this layer, pop the opacity all the way back up, set the fill to zero and the mode to normal and add a layer style of color overlay (something brown or tan) with a low opacity just to give it some color variation and possibly a pattern overlay of clouds or something to give it some light/dark variation.

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## LonewandererD

Kay, here we go.

I've been messing around with making marshlands, i sort of like mine because it looks wet but seems to be lively, which is what i'm aiming for with the marshes of Adallia. I like it but something seems off, maybe i should make the green brighter, it looks a bit too cool right now.

I darkened the forest because, as Steel General said, the other green was too over-saturated. I'm really liking that forest texture, thanks again Ascension.

And finally i made the areas to the bottom right brighter to represent open grasslands. Its fine but it still feels like it needs something. While fooling around with the grass i found a good colour that i'm going to use for my desert regions on one of my other continents so its not all bad.

I'm still trying to draw up my main map for Adallia, pics to0 come soon.

Any help would be appreciated.

-D-

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## LonewandererD

A few more updates to the practice map.

I've changed the marsh area to be darker and blended it in better with the treeline, the bluish-green wasn't working for me. Also i change the white around the lettering from a white stroke to a white outer glow so that it still makes the lettering legible while not overpowering it.

-D-

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## Karro

Hmm.  I think I prefer the previous marshes, just because it looks like marshes (i.e everglades-style) to me, with lots of grass and spots of water showing through.  The new style is just kind of a grayish blur, and seems pretty indistinct.  Anyway, good implementation of Ascension's style, overall.

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## LonewandererD

Yeah, i agree with you there Karro, the Evergaldes feel was more appealling.

So i changed it back, but i'll be using that brownish green marshes to represent wastes later on. Also i added another layer on top of the mountains peaks. Its hard to see but it's small layer of light grey. It make the peaks look higher and painted across a larger area it gives the illusion of snow in the upper regions of the mountains.

Okay, this is my colour scheme that i'm going to use for my map of Adallia, its almost done so i should start to be adding coloured versions soon. To get more detail i'm going to colour it country by country and then combine it together into one large continent map.

-D-

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## Karro

Can't wait to see a full-fledged map!  Good luck.

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## LonewandererD

Okay, after drawing, and cursing, and more drawing i was able to draw the map of Adallia.

It was drawn by hand on six a4 pages and assembled together on computer where they were cleaned and gaps were filled. I'm going to break the map down into countries and colour them individually. I will then bring all of the colour maps together into one complete coloured version of Adallia, that file is going to be huuuuuuuuuge.

Then the final coloured will be broken down into countries again so i can make regional maps with details like towns, forts and place names. In each regional map the other countries will be grayed out so that they're still there but all of the focus and detail will be on the region in question. So i have some work cut out for me, but what the heck, thats half the fun right  :Smile:  .

Any thoughts or advice will be greatly appreciated.

-D-

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## Steel General

Neat land shapes!

Looks like you still have some tiny gaps you may have overlooked.

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## LonewandererD

Will do Gandwarf, but not on this map, this is only a colour/style test.

Yeah it would be a problem if a climate was temperant, mother nature is very annoyed in those areas  :Smile: 

I have some questions if anyone can answer them. I need some measurements to help to set up Khazardia. I tried looking at an atlas but it didn't help. So, using the measurements for our world, my questions are...

1 - How far is it from the equator to the poles?
2 - How far is it from the equator to the tropic lines?
3 - How far is it from the poles to the artic circles?

If possible I would like the know these measurements in miles.

If anyone could answer these three I would be most grateful. The idea for Khazardia is that the southern most point sits between the tropics and the equator and the northern most point hits the artic circle. Of course, all of the ice up there hides the actual end of Khazardia and makes it look like it goes all the way to the north pole, where the Everlandian Santa lives. I am very aware that Khazardia is going to be quite big, Adallia is going to be tiny by comparison.

Any help would be great.

-D-

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## Karro

> Will do Gandwarf, but not on this map, this is only a colour/style test.
> 
> Yeah it would be a problem if a climate was temperant, mother nature is very annoyed in those areas 
> 
> I have some questions if anyone can answer them. I need some measurements to help to set up Khazardia. I tried looking at an atlas but it didn't help. So, using the measurements for our world, my questions are...
> 
> 1 - How far is it from the equator to the poles?
> 2 - How far is it from the equator to the tropic lines?
> 3 - How far is it from the poles to the artic circles?
> ...


Earth's meridian circumference is 24,860 miles, so the distance from the equator to the poles is one quarter of that, or 6,215 miles.

The tropics lie at about 23 degrees, 26 minutes, with each degree representing approximately 68.7 to 68.8 miles.  So the tropics are roughly about 1,600 miles from the equator (I calculated about 1,608 or 1,609).

The arctic circle is at about 66 degrees, 33 minutes, so from 90 degress (the poles) down, with each degree at this point representing roughly 69 miles (the difference having to do, I think, with the oblong shape of the earth, being somewhat flatish at the poles compared to the equator), the circles are roughly 1,618 miles from the poles (not appreciably greater than the distance of the tropics from the equator).

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## LonewandererD

Thanks a million Karro  :Smile: 

As my map is divided into 100x100 mile square grids I'm going to round to the nearest 50 miles (100 pixels). So my measurements are

Pole to Polar Circle = 1,600 miles
Equator to Pole = 6,200 miles
Equator to Tropic = 1,600 miles

This means that Adallia, which is about 3,300 miles from north to south (and about 2,900 miles from east to west), should fit snugly between the tropic lines, on the assumption that its 3,800 miles from tropic to tropic. I have 500 miles to spare, i actually have more to spare than this because i counted by grid, not by where the land actually sat in the grid and so the actually length is less.

So, from the southern to northern tips, Khazardia should be about 4,600 Miles. Using my grid system, this comes down to about 9,200 pixels. That's big, but big is realistic and realistic is what I need.

Thanks again, now that I have my height I need an approximate length, does anyone know far it is from the eastern to western border of Russia? I'm aiming for about that size for my width, maybe wider if i feel that Russia isn't big enough. I'm thinking that Khazardia needs to be twice as wide as Adallia, or close to it, so I'll need about 5,800 miles (11,600 pixels). Is that about the distance from the east border to the west border of Russia, or is it closer to the distance from east of Asia to the west of Europe?

Khazardia will be divided into about three maps so my comp doesn't crash from trying to run 9,200 x 11,600 pixels. Each map should be a little smaller than Adallia.

On a side note, would a landmass this big really be classified as a single continent? Should I break it down into more continents?

-D-

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## Karro

> Thanks a million Karro 
> 
> As my map is divided into 100x100 mile square grids I'm going to round to the nearest 50 miles (100 pixels). So my measurements are
> 
> Pole to Polar Circle = 1,600 miles
> Equator to Pole = 6,200 miles
> Equator to Tropic = 1,600 miles
> 
> This means that Adallia, which is about 3,300 miles from north to south (and about 2,900 miles from east to west), should fit snugly between the tropic lines, on the assumption that its 3,800 miles from tropic to tropic. I have 500 miles to spare, i actually have more to spare than this because i counted by grid, not by where the land actually sat in the grid and so the actually length is less.
> ...



It looks like Russia is roughly 5,000 - 6,000 miles across at it's widest points, depending on how you define the widest points.

As for whether a continent this size could be one continent: that all depends.  It could be a super-continent that consists of several smaller plates that have smashed and stuck together - kind of like the whole Eurasia continent has bits from a European plate, an Asian/Russian plate, and the Indian plate.  It's potentially conceivable that it's all on one massive plate, but that seems somewhat less likely.

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## LonewandererD

No maps right now, but i do have some questions.

1) This isn't that important but it is something I would like some opinions on. To the east of the my southern continent I have a large island chain. This chain is very large, reaching about 2,000 Miles with the largest island about 1000x600 Miles. These islands are pretty close together so from space they appear to be almost one landmass and for the most part they all sit on the same tectonic plate. My question is would it be big enough to be classified as a continent or should I just keep calling it a very big archipelago?

2) This has to do with colouring. I'm trying to create a style for snow for my maps and I'm at a loss how to go about this. I tried to simply lightly paint on some white using a soft airbrush but this didn't give me a realistic enough look, this technique does work for mountains though, but it has to be used very lightly. Then I tried changing the colour of the land using a gradient to try and get some white that naturally fades into my base land colour but the transition didn't look right and the setting I use for land colour (Hard light) doesn't work so well with the white. Then I tried to paint straight white and try to break it up by fiddling with the fill/opacity or apply some sort of texture. The textures didn't work to well on the flat white, it didn't look realistic enough, and neither did the change in fill or opacity.

I say this alot and I'm going to say this again, I need help.

I need help not just wiht coming up with snow but with some other snow related problems. First I need to know what kind of mountains would look good in a tundra/snow environ and how to make these mountains look like they're covered in snow and how the transition from snow covered fields to snow mountains should look. Same goes for forests, i have a colour but no idea how to apply snow.

As always, any help would be great.

-D-

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## Steel General

Can't help you with the island chain -vs- continent question, I'm sure someone will be along to give you an answer.

Snow and ice can be tricky, I usually use a texture and/or pattern to do it. Plenty of good ones out there.

For snow caps on mountains, I usually use a medium opacity/flow, round airbrush and 'dot' the mountain peaks, I've also used pattern/textures to do it as well.

There really is no "right" way to do it.

You may want to look at some of the finished maps, find one with the right 'look' then check with the author to see how they did it.

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## LonewandererD

practice map updating

I've played around with the desert in the arid/dry area map. It can now be distinguished from arid wastelands, which had its own tweaking, but the transition is easy and clean from one to the other.

I've also done the map of tundra/snow areas. As is obvious the snow map is considerably colder and contrasts greatly with the warmer arid map, just the way it should be. The contrast may seem a little big now but on my actual maps the two area will never be right next to each other and will seperated by temperate zones that should make the transition from one to other a little cleaner.

How am I doing?

-D-

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## Ascension

I like the color schemes, very sweet.  There is something about the brush that you are using for the forests...it kind of looks stereoscopic, like one of those posters where you have to unfocus your eyes to see something 3d.

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## Gandwarf

Very nice. The snow looks good and I love what you did to the river in the desert. Looks very convincing.

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## LonewandererD

Okay, here's a very basic plan of what I have planned for Khazardia. The map will be about 9000x9000 pics so I can assemble it all as one giant map and then break it down into two or three smaller maps when its done.

I have an idea of the land but not of who shall be upon it. I've roughy guessed where some of the realms will be (the numbers) but I need some inspiration as what to do with the leftovers. Here's what I have so far. 1) is the Tonrell States, several warriors nations comprised almost entirely of humans. They're highly religious and suspicious of the outside world yet highly mercantile. 2) The northern reaches of the Zephyrn Empire. 3) The Magocracies, several nations entirely devoted to pursuit of magical power and sorcery. 4) The Valesnan, a demi-empire comprised entirely of civilisation-hating beast races. 5) was put there by accident, I actually have no idea what goes here. 6) This hasn't been put in but is the High Wastes a desolate tundra land adjacent to 4 and 5, note that the islands in the southeast are also taken. In one of these realms I need to out a large desolate area known as the Dendigrothi Waste. 

Any ideas would be great.

-D-

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## Gidde

Mountain placement looks good, and I really like the crater archipelago in the southeast. Not sure if the rough sketch just doesn't incorporate it, but you may want to curve the mountains there if it actually is a crater.

Looking forward to seeing the pieces put together!

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## LonewandererD

Just a note, the "crater" in the southeast was not naturally formed and so the landscape around it is going to look distorted.

-D-

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## LonewandererD

Update. 

Here's the base B&W map for Khazardia, it came out bigger than planned but I can work with that. The red lines indicated the postitions of the Polar Circle and the Tropics Line.

As always, I have some questions for our world gurus. First, do deserts have to sit on the tropics line or can I explain it away with two large rain shadows? Second, assuming that this map depicts Khazardia in the summer, would snow descned south of the Poilar Circle line, and if so how far?

As always, any help or feedback is welcomed.

-D-

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## Yagisan

> Update. 
> 
> Here's the base B&W map for Khazardia, it came out bigger than planned but I can work with that. The red lines indicated the postitions of the Polar Circle and the Tropics Line.


Is this the entire northern hemisphere ?




> As always, I have some questions for our world gurus. First, do deserts have to sit on the tropics line


No - not all deserts are the hot and sandy type  :Wink: 




> or can I explain it away with two large rain shadows?


It depends - I've tried to accurately model the climate zones for Prime, and where the deserts appear depends on temperature, rainfall, wind direction, rain shadow areas, booth in January and July. In my case, both my "cold" deserts are caused primarily by rain shadow year round, while my hot desert is cause by both high temperatures, and rain shadow (posted -> http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...0412#post80412).

Now, assuming that's the entire northern hemisphere, I'd tentatively place a cold desert between the two mountain ranges north of the number 5 in the handdrawn map, and perhaps a hot desert to the left of the mountains at number 3. 




> Second, assuming that this map depicts Khazardia in the summer, would snow descned south of the Poilar Circle line, and if so how far?


I think you might get some snow in the region bounded by mountains above 1 depending on ocean currents - if a warm current is coming past then it's possible - if a cold current it's unlikely.




> As always, any help or feedback is welcomed.
> 
> -D-

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## Karro

In addition to those notes, deserts and semi-arid environments also tend to form in the interiors of large landmasses.  This is because even if there are no impediments like mountains to cause rainshadow... as moisture is moved across large land areas and cools, it condescends (rains).  At some point, enough moisture has already been removed from the air that without a large body of water to draw more moisture from as air currents move further and further inland, the air gets drier and drier and the land gets less and less rainfall.

As I understand it, between rainshadow and the massive size of the Asian continent, this is what causes the Gobi Desert, which isn't very near the tropics at all.

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## LonewandererD

Thanks for the info guys and to answer your question Yagisan no this is not the entire northern hemisphere, if it was I would have a rather small world. I'm working on this world with a friend of mine, this is the northern hemisphere in my half of the world.

You've pretty much guessed where I was going to put the hot and cold deserts in the northern hemisphere, I just needed clarification that my placement didn't violate normal environmental placement. With the cold desert, would it become grassland if it where watered by rivers that are fed from the mountains and the annual thawing of ice?  Or would the areas arounf the rivers be green but the rest dry? I have an idea of a grassland orientated country and I want to know where to put it.

Also, the mountains on my plan are going to be smaller on the actual map, they look bigger on the plan because I had less space to work with.

I did think I was going to get snow in the no1 region, I'm going to change the direction of the mountains in that region so that they angle down to the southeast and not the southwest, this should mean I would have snow trapped between in the mountains and the inland sea right?

I have some basic knowledge of water currents and climate placement that I'm using to colour the rest of Khazardia. Here's what I think its going to look like, correct me if i'm wrong. The southeast on the ocean side of the mountains should be tropical and wet. the other side of the mountains is going to be arid turning into desert further in, sort of like the southern regions of america and mexico. The northwest should be cloudy, miserable and heavily forested, like England and I think Scandinavia (check spelling). The northeast should also be heavily forested but a little warmer and more pleasant than on the other side because water is travelling up from the tropics, like Maine. The south west should be arid changing to greener areas along the coast, like the Meditirenean (check spelling). The centre is a mix of grasslands, wastes, deserts and forests (for the areas that gets enough rainfall). Am I right in my planning? And what areas, if any, in the centre would be forested? 

-D-

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## LonewandererD

Not really an update but something I need to run by our climate experts.

Here is the basic climate layout for Khazardia. The numbers and red lines are the smaller sections I've broken the map down into for colouring also there for the convenience of pointing out where change is needed. Red on green is terrible I know. Right now I've done section 1 and I'm currently working on section 2. Colour code is as follows...

Blue = Water.
Brown = Major mountain chains.
Dark Green = Temperate zones, heavily forested turning into grasslands in low rainfall areas. Warmer and more pleasant in the east and colder in the west.
Lighter Green = Warmer zones. Mainly plains/savanah in higher rainfall zones but arid wastes further in where it is dryer. Green along the coasts and around local water sources like rivers and lakes.
Bright Green = Tropical zones, same as Adallia, jungle terrain and marshes.
Papyrus = Desert.
White = Snow covered/tundra. Heavily forested in higher rainfall areas.


Is this plan accuarate you do I need to change stuff?

-D-

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## Yagisan

> Here is the basic climate layout for Khazardia. The numbers and red lines are the smaller sections I've broken the map down into for colouring also there for the convenience of pointing out where change is needed. Red on green is terrible I know. Right now I've done section 1 and I'm currently working on section 2. Colour code is as follows...
> 
> Blue = Water.
> Brown = Major mountain chains.
> Dark Green = Temperate zones, heavily forested turning into grasslands in low rainfall areas. Warmer and more pleasant in the east and colder in the west.
> Lighter Green = Warmer zones. Mainly plains/savanah in higher rainfall zones but arid wastes further in where it is dryer. Green along the coasts and around local water sources like rivers and lakes.
> Bright Green = Tropical zones, same as Adallia, jungle terrain and marshes.
> Papyrus = Desert.
> White = Snow covered/tundra. Heavily forested in higher rainfall areas.
> ...


I don't claim to be an expert, but on a quick once over, these are my observations:

For snow to fall we need moisture in the air to hit a nice cold area, and as moisture tends to come in from the sea, and not seeing all of the northern hemisphere, but noting the large sea to the side, I'd hand wave that it's likely you do have warm currents heading that way, and in fact the snow at 15 is on the wrong side of the mountains, and that the location you have snow in, may well be icecap and/or frozen tundra.

The coastal regions around number 5 would have a climate similar to Perth near the dark green regions, becoming more like Broome towards the desert.

In 13 I'd expect a bit more tundra, and for some reason the coast along 2 just screams NSW to QLD coast to me.

Hope it helps,

Yagisan

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## LonewandererD

You don't know how strange, and somewhat refreshing, it is to hear someone use Australian locales as descriptions, it really helps. I was going to have the coast line of 2 to be rainforest but being so far north of the equator, and the tropics line, i thouhg it would be more temperate. But looking at Queensland and NSW it does make sense.

I'm going to be put more tundra up in 13, its actually supposed to be the site of cold desert, at least I think it would be, and I will put some snow on the other side of the mountains in 15. Iw ill have to look up the climate types for Perth and Broome, i'm not that familiar with them as I'm on the other side of Australia.

Thnx Yagisan

-D-

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## Yagisan

> You don't know how strange, and somewhat refreshing, it is to hear someone use Australian locales as descriptions, it really helps.


 Well, they would be the ones I have the most direct experience with  :Wink:  ( I'm in Sydney myself)




> I was going to have the coast line of 2 to be rainforest but being so far north of the equator, and the tropics line, i thouhg it would be more temperate. But looking at Queensland and NSW it does make sense.


 The mountain range just evokes the great dividing range, and the obviously more arid interior would suggest a quick transition from central NSW to far western NSW climate. The southern end looks like sub-tropical Brisbane and as you get further towards the equator, you transition into tropical Cairns.




> I'm going to be put more tundra up in 13, its actually supposed to be the site of cold desert, at least I think it would be, and I will put some snow on the other side of the mountains in 15. Iw ill have to look up the climate types for Perth and Broome, i'm not that familiar with them as I'm on the other side of Australia.
> 
> Thnx Yagisan
> 
> -D-


I think this picture makes it rather clear what I think the area looks like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Au...lite_plane.jpg

This is an extremly useful page for climate classification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6...classification

As for your cold desert in 13 - I'd think of something like the Nullarbor Plain in the warmer regions with tundra closer to the pole

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## LonewandererD

Thnx, I have on Koppen around here somewhere but could never really get into it, suppose I'll have to get into now, should be a great help. Thnx for reminding.

You know, I've heard it sung in song but have never really took it seriously but Australia really does look like it's sunburnt. "I love a sunburnt country!"

-D-

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## Karro

Well, I can't put this in Aussie terms (I'm a USian, myself), but I think your arid grasslands that you see mostly in 5 and 3 would extend upward further into 6 and 7 possibly even 10.  Not that USian terms will help, but I'm thinking how the Great Plains extend over a very wide portion of the interior of the US and you get arid "badlands" up in the Dakotas.  You would still have temperate forests on either side in 6/8 and 9/12

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## LonewandererD

Not a bad idea Karro, I did want a grassland orientated culture and now I know where to put it.

Don't worry about using USian terms, quite a bit of my inspiration for Khazardia came from looking at some maps of the US, mostly the southern/central regions.

-D-

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## Karro

Glad I was able to help!

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## LonewandererD

My first maps never survive for long and Khazardia was no expection as I'm now working on Khazardia mark 2. Mark 1 lack that sense of scale I really wanted. I'm going to recycle a lot of mark 1 for mark but ultimately its going to be bigger, large to extend from the equator and past the polar circle, about 5000 miles from north to south and 8000 miles from east to west. Also, mark 2 is going to be broken up more, with more bodies of water cutting into the land; mark 1 was just too blocky for me. The idea is that a large that is already broken up will be easier to split into smaller regions. The regions of Adallia (of which there are 3) we broken up by political borders whereas the regions of khazardia need to be broken up by geographical borders, i.e. The Talumachi City States are seperated from the Cynnagul Lands by the Cynan Straights.

Enough of that, I has a question. I know that rain can block wind and any rain it carries, thus forming rainshadows, but can the mountains also redirect rain? If i have wind coming down from the north bearing rain and it hits a mountain range that is angle down to the southeast would the rain then be directed down to the southeast?

Also, does any know how to make convincing looking ice/ice caps in photoshop?

-D-

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## Karro

> My first maps never survive for long and Khazardia was no expection as I'm now working on Khazardia mark 2. Mark 1 lack that sense of scale I really wanted. I'm going to recycle a lot of mark 1 for mark but ultimately its going to be bigger, large to extend from the equator and past the polar circle, about 5000 miles from north to south and 8000 miles from east to west. Also, mark 2 is going to be broken up more, with more bodies of water cutting into the land; mark 1 was just too blocky for me. The idea is that a large that is already broken up will be easier to split into smaller regions. The regions of Adallia (of which there are 3) we broken up by political borders whereas the regions of khazardia need to be broken up by geographical borders, i.e. The Talumachi City States are seperated from the Cynnagul Lands by the Cynan Straights.
> 
> Enough of that, I has a question. I know that rain can block wind and any rain it carries, thus forming rainshadows, but can the mountains also redirect rain? If i have wind coming down from the north bearing rain and it hits a mountain range that is angle down to the southeast would the rain then be directed down to the southeast?
> 
> Also, does any know how to make convincing looking ice/ice caps in photoshop?
> 
> -D-


I'm not 100% on this but I believe what happens is that the wet air starts cooling as it comes up over the mountains.  As it cools, the water in the air condenses grows heavy, and falls.  Because of this, the windward side of the mountain will get a lot of rain/precipitation and the leeward side will get relatively little.  I believe that not much of it will be left to be deflected in another direction to go around the mountains.

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## Gidde

That's my understanding as well -- moisture gets dumped rather than deflected.

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## LonewandererD

Hey, minor update.

This is the new base plan for Khazardia (I'm thinking of changing the name, any suggestions?). It was drawn on two seperate pages which is why the the two halves don't line up right, the scanner did something weird to them. You get the idea.

Khazardia differs from Adallia in that Adallia was divided into countries with each country having its own colour. Khazardia is much larger than Adallia and so isn't divided into countries but cultural groups, as can be seen on the plan. Adallia didn't need this as it was all one culture. Each cultural group will have its own colour and will then be further broken down into countries.

Basically, this is what I have planned for each area. The two lines cutting across the landmasses are the tropics line and the polar circle.

1 - The Valesnian Empire. A brutish, primitive empire built on war and highly resistant to the spread of more civilised southern cultures. The area is heavily forested with the Western area being quite mountainous.
2 - Cyna. A small nation made up of near-xenophobic Ithekins. Dry inland but greener near the coast, especially during the wet season, sort of like the mediterenean (check spelling) climate.
3 - The Magocracies. Several nations unified under the pursuit of magick. The east and southern regions are topical with the rest being warm and dry almost all year round.
4 - The Tulimachi States. A collection of powerful city states associated with slave trade. Climate is the same as Cyna but on a larger scale i.e. a lot dryer inland.
5 - The Territories of the Zephyrn Empire. The northern provinces of the powerful mercantile empire of Zephyr in northern Loratolia. Very green around the coasts but the western area in the rainshadow of the mountains is very dry
6 - The Tonrell Nations. Several ancient nations renowned for the their sea faring accomplishments and featuring the largest number of Doumr who rule the nations. The area is cold and wet with vast pine (or is it evergreen?) forests.
7 - The High Wastes. For the most part this area is unclaimed and left to the less civilised races with only small civilised colonies being established in the west and south. Same as the Tonrell Nations but with larger expanses of tundra and grasses.
8 - No real idea. Need help with this one.
9 - Same as number 8.
10 - The Iset Nations. Several pseudo-european nations with strong religious beliefs and fierce prejudice of magick users. Your average temperate zone.
11 - The Khazard Expanses. Known as the land of thunder these lands are home to many giant races and small nomadic nations. The western areas are temperate forests and the central and eastern areas are wide plains and grasslands.
12 - The Dendigrothi Wastes. A forboding place contested by demon worshippers, the Valesnian Empire and the ancient Grandarch Giant race. Need help with the climate type here.

Have I got this right? Where would any hot/cold deserts form?

Truthfully this map is going to be a bigger pain than Adallia. Adallia was 2x2 pages, this is going to be 4x6 pages, am I going too big?

NOTE: For ease of colouring Khazardia will be broken down even further into smaller areas and so the areas on the plan are subject to change.

-D-

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## Gidde

Personally, I don't think you can go too big, if your computer can handle it. After all, you're mapping a world that is likely (if it's Earth-like) 25000 miles around. The bigger the map, the more of that world fits.

The short short version of the desert question: Deserts will surround your tropics line (especially inland), and follow the east side of mountains (rain shadow). You'll have especially lush areas on the west sides of mountain ranges (where the rain gets dumped causing the shadow on the other side), especially on the west coast, though that will dry out near the tropic line.

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## LonewandererD

Update...

Here is the b&w base map for Khazardia. It's not as broken up, ocean wise, as I would have liked so I'm going to make the next map I do a lot more broken up. I'm also drawing up plans for a small eastern pseudo-continent so I'll get pics up on that soon.

I'm glad I just recently changed to a better laptop for this map is huge, almost three times the size of Adallia and the image attached is only one fifth the size of its original size. I know it doesn't look like it but it is bigger than north america and europe and almost bigger than russia. I'm drawing up the climate plan for it using Koppen's Climate Clarrification System, this is a great boon to any map maker and I greatly reccommend it.

And just a few things to clarrify and question about. One, i didn't really make it clear at the beginning but the Everlandias are only my half of the world me and my friend are making, I have the eastern hempisphere, he has the west. Two, what kind of style would this type of map be? Is it Atlas, satellite, pseudo-satellite? And how do I refer to this style, do  still call it Ascension's style, an adaptation of Ascension's style, or my style?

So, what do yall think, what needs work?

-D-

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## Ascension

You make the most dynamic and exciting continent shapes, super cool.

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## LonewandererD

Updating, this new laptop runs photoshop so much faster than before.

I have two map plans, one regional and one climate, both are likely to change, especially the former. Also included is Koppen's Climate Classification System, for use with the climate plan. As with before the map has been broken down into smaller portions for colouring and to make any future changers easier.

I'm also may put up more practice maps, I'm experimenting with more differing climate types and colours.

-D-

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## Steel General

Hmmm...Might have to give that CCS (to long a name  :Smile: ) a look-see. I usually ignore that kind of stuff and just wing it based on 'real world' knowledge.

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## Jeff_Wilson63

> Here is the b&w base map for Khazardia.


I sort of hate to say it, but this map strikes me as not just being unlikely, but completely impossible.  I'd like to know what sort of geological processes made it that way.  I wish I had some positive feedback to offer, but I don't.

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## LonewandererD

For the most part, this world was not made by normal geological processes, it was literally hand crafted by the Elder Gods and has sinse endured two world wide catastrophies and the near-melting of the southern polar icecaps. The area at 11 used to be a solid landmass before the catastrophe.

I was thinking of alering some of the areas, would it help if i removed some of the outlying islands and filled in some of the area arounf 14 and 15?

-D-

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## Jeff_Wilson63

What sort of catastrophes?   Surface explosions/impacts?  Outgassing?  Eruptions?  Nanoclasm?  Magical transformation? Desertification?

Getting rid of some of the islands would help.  You have a lot of barrier islands.  Unless they're built on something unusual in coastal areas on our world, barrier islands at that scale tend to erode rapidly.

The area around 14 and 15 is actually the one area where the outline makes sense to me.  I can see the continental rift to the (north)west of that area where two continental plates (or the equivalent) are pulling away from each other.

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## rdanhenry

The thing that strikes me as off is the strait at the lower left. It is really very straight, like it was cut with the sword of a god. Now, if it was cut with the sword of a god, that's great. If not, well, I'd make it a little less of straight strait.

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## LonewandererD

Okay, not much of an update but what the hey.

Attchaed is a slightly altered map of Khazardia, most of the changes aren't noticeable but the little things still count. I've gone back and removed alot of the small islands, there were quite aq few that just felt out of place. However, instead of deleting these maps I merged the large ones with the coast line of the straights in the south-west to break up the out-off-place straight look it had. I've also rearranged some of the islands, such as in the southeast.

I'm starting the colouring now. Should I update after I've coloured every few areas or wait until I've done the whole lot?

-D-

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## LonewandererD

Don't you just love who can stumble upon sometinh nice completely by accident. I was playing around with my grassland layer, well I was actually trying to make my wastes look more wasted (i know there's a joke here), when I came across something interesting. Below are two maps, a before and after if you will, and would like to know of what poeple think. Does this new grassland look better than the one before, should I use it?

Also, and I know this will make me unpopular, but I'm considering redoing the map of Adallia, not a complete makeover but and improved version of it. I have a several reasons why i think i need to redo it and the first one is that in doing research for this map and experimenting with photoshop I've found many things in the Adallia map to be flawed and in need of change.

Also, and lastly, i've been experimenting with ways in which I can make my mountains look much more mountainy, they just seems so flat right now, Ascension's method, although great, just isn't working right with all of the changes I'm trying to make with the maps. Any ideas?

-D-

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## Ascension

With a lil bit darker green painted over top that would make a nice forest.  Also check my current wip, Aalder, as I will be posting a tweak for something a lil bit different for mountains.

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## Juggernaut1981

Yeah currently your grasslands look like they've been overrun with blackberry briars.  Awesome "not old growth" forest texture... waaaay too much shadow for grasslands.

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## LonewandererD

Truthfully I haven't gotten a lot done on my maps, other stuff keeps getting in the way.

Before I do continue with my maps however I'm going to be doing a lot of experimenting with my colours in order to try and make my own style and improve on the litte things I had before. Right now I have a revision for my oceans. The first image is my ocean before the change and the second one is the ocean after the change, i felt i need to make a clearer difference between shallow and deep water. It gets deeper further out but this map is focusing on the coastal area so it isn't visible.

Next I'm moving onto grasslands and mountains.

-D-

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## LonewandererD

I shouldn't double post but as soon as I posted the last post I epxeriment a bit more and came up with more ocean pics. Now the deep water goes preety close to the coast, as it does on satellite maps I've seen of earth. Here are two pics, the same thing but with different layer styles, which is better or should i use neither?

-D-

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## Steel General

I like them both, but if I was forced to pick between the two I'd go with the second one.

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## Gidde

Definitely the second.

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## Gandwarf

The second!

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## Ramah

Is it just me or do they "bubble" up over the land? Especially the rivers? Or is that expected at this stage?

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## LonewandererD

It seems I'm going with the second one  :Smile: 

@Ramah - I looked into the "bubbling" and found that it most likely caused by the shelf layer, I went back and tweaked it, maybe the attached version is less bubbly. I also added an outer glow for the beaches. I know the ocean looks darker in this one but thats becuase I forgot to save the previous oceaqn and made this one a shade too dark, i know what the mistake was and will fix it in future maps.

-D-

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## Ascension

I like this just as it is...I always like the darker colors and the lil beachy thing looks good too.

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## LonewandererD

Instead of trying to work my way through each little aspect of a map I just dove and decided to experiment with different environments and came up with these three.

The first one is a tropical/jungle terrain, the second is a more temperate areas and the third is a much dryer area. I'n trying the get some good pictures of pine forests so that I can do a colder region and I'm also experiment arids/deserts and plains.

Should I keep them or go ahead with what I had before?

-D-

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## Gandwarf

Impressive... although the rivers are still bubbly I think (sticking out). It's kind ruining the effect for me.

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## LonewandererD

These are pretty much refinements of what I had before with the additions of a fourth "plains" climate.

@Gandwarf - Not sure but i think i fixed the bubbly problem.

-D-

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## LonewandererD

Not much but these are the winter versions of the temperate and plains climates.

-D-

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## Steel General

They look good so far, but the rivers still look off to me. Depending on what your current settings are, maybe try reversing the bevel.

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## Gandwarf

Yeah, the terrain looks great, but the rivers still seem a bit strange (more so in some examples than in others).

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## LonewandererD

Hmmm, should I continue with these styles, the more  get into them the more I question whether or not they fit with the rest of the map.

-D-

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## Ascension

I think the terrains and forests look great.  The river problem you have partially addressed...use an outer bevel.  The other part is that you need to set it to down instead of up.

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## Gandwarf

Yeah, as I said, the terrain looks great! It is just the rivers for me.

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## LonewandererD

One problem with the rivers is that it is already set to down. To try and get a better feel for this new style I drew up two maps, same landmass but each coloured with the two different styles, minus the rivers. Which is better?

-D-

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## Gandwarf

I think I like the first better.

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## Ramah

The second one looks better to me there. But the sea still seems to be suffering from the same problem as the rivers. It seems to be above the land, like a small amount of liquid on a piece of plastic.

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## LonewandererD

Hmm, truthfully I'm not too crazy about either map, they have their ups and downs, so I'm going to try and go for a third style that uses aspects of both, mostly the land textures of the second one with the more fantasy tyle of the first. Forests are still are puzzle though, i'm still ot sure how to make convincing jungles and such. I like my temperate forests and the texture i use for the dryer forests but ican't add them to the map in a way that looks convincing. I've seen a map that has sort of what I'm after but I've been unable to replicate a similiar effect.

I could just take the "Total War" approacha and only have smalll groupings of trees and more open spaces, playing Empire Total War was actually what inspired me to experiment, the overland maps look real good.

I think I've fixed the river problem, i changed it to an outer bevel, thnx Ascension. Now back to experimenting.

-D-

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## Ascension

The second peninsula looks very jungle-y to me or very pine-y and I like it a lot...lots of contrast.  The first peninsula looks more like forests on a plains area...colors are all closer together, I like that too.

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## LonewandererD

To try and get an idea of how the continents will fit together I made a small map with both Adallia and Khazardia, both scaled down to a quarter of their original size. Sadly, looking at the landmasses together I'm not too thrilled, they don't look natural. Would anybody be angry if I started over again? I know I've already done it before but If it go back and really pay attention to getting it all done right I think it'll be worth it, I especially need to go back and work harder in detailing all of the individual areas.

Also, what software do I use to turn a flat 2d image in a 3d globe, when I've done my half of the world I want to see how it would look as if it where an actual world.

-D-

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## Karro

Up to you, man, if you want to start over.  Although, I think one easy fix is to move the Adallia continent to the east of rather than west of the Khazardia continent.  At least, it works in my mind's eye.

To put these maps on a globe you can use Google Earth.  I think there's a mini-tut somewhere on this site on how to do that.

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## basil4j

I think you can also use bryce (there is a free version, I think v5.5 or something) which will accept a black and white height map and turn it into 3d.

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## RobA

Gimp will do it (map to object/sphere).  There is a post in the forums on using google earth to do it.  any 3d modeling tool should be able to do it.

-Rob A>

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## LonewandererD

In my search for better mountains i came once again to pasis' excellent tutorial, for which i will be using again when I try to tackle more believable town symbols. Anyway, here are four pics. The first is my orginal mountain type, the second is a mountain type i was going to use as low desert mountains, the third is my standard mountain type and the fourth is my cold/ash mountain type. I know I need more practice on actually drawing the mountains, I was never great at this style of mountain but chose it because it gives me more control on mountain placement which I need, but which of the textures/colours work and which don't. I am working on some more rock textures so if these mountains don't work I'll have some new ones up soon.

-D-

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## Preypacer

Wow... Very nice work!

I love this style... it's actually the style I'd like to create the world map for my own project in. I think all the little details, little corners, openings in a forest, etc... help to stir my imagination to what might be hidden away in there that some adventurous person might discover.

Are there any specific tutorials or references that you used in putting this together? I read through most of the thread, though I may have missed such details since it was kind of a lot to read and I did skim a bit :-p.

Also, I'm starting to learn GIMP seriously now (dabbled with it on and off, but always resorted back to PS), so this would be a great way to learn the software and create an (ideally) attractive map.

Thanks!

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