Yes it is lacking but that is because I have only just started on the man-made stuff. Like I said when I first posted the picture this is mostly just the natural parts. (Which means there also shouldn’t be outlines for civilizations/kingdoms)
[EDIT]- are you saying it is lacking in natural aspects? If so what would you suggest added?
This is me focusing on the world. “We never shape the world the world shapes us” -Toni Morrison
Meaning that the way we act often depends on the environment we live in. Nomadic people could only be nomadic people if their was the area enough to be nomadic. Plus this way while building my story I can trace the mc’s path across the map. So really if you think about it that way this is me building characters plot and the world.
No I wasn’t talking about the map. I meant your ideas at the very top of this thread. haha
Just as it would be if the map were black and white. Not grayscale. Black and white.
I am not asking you to take out the color mind you, haha just so it can look clearer. Like a coloring book I suppose
So you would like me to take out the texturing I have been adding? I thought it was making the map look better. Also keep in mind that if you want realistic most maps back then were not exact and were mostlyestimates and had very few marked boundaries as they were unknown.
I was going for more of a flowing transition between environments instead of black lines separating two different places.
I have not started on kingdom boundaries but I was thinking about having a text stat that just stated which cities and castles and such are controlled by which kingdom that way I don’t have to redraw boundary lines, or draw multiple variations.
So I have a new question. I am planning on having three companions for the mc one talkative, charismatic character, a strong brute fighter, and a nerdy intelligent character.
The problem I have come to is what are their races, names and specific traits. The traits part can be ignored if you don’t want to think of them and the name greatly depends on their race. What do you guys think would fit these characters? All mythical creatures are a go! I want each to be a different race. Thanks for your help!
[EDIT] - I’m going for not human btw
I think the charismatic talker character should be a Elf since they have the beauty.
@Branton That’s what I thought at first but then I thought that the elf could also be a good thinker as they are known to be smart. Or is that just me?
I am currently looking at @Wolfsra 's Race Creation Guide. I am thinking about potentially creating my own races for them as well, although I think they may turn out very similar to already created races.
Stereotypes suck: go for a charismatic dwarf, a brutish elf, and a nerdy orc. Also, your map looks a little unrealistic (the river delta in particular looks completely out of place on such a small river). You could easily explain it as being magical (i.e. a wizard/the gods did it), though, so there’s not really a problem.
@ParrotWatcher say I wanted it to be at least a little more realistic. What would you suggest besides making the river longer?
Also let me just point out that during this time there was nothing like satellites so the map maker just had to draw from his point of view so things were not always to scale. I’m using this as an excuse for not spending the large amount of time it would take to complete such a thing. BUT if I have time I might try and make it more to scale.
Also I was shooting for about the land area of Europe to try and put the map to scale.
@Kelvin
I should point out that I’m not a professional geographer, but I’ll help where I can.
The very first thing you should do is decide on the scale: is this a continent (as would be suggested by the nomads you mentioned earlier, and the apparent multitude of environments), or a small island (which could be crossed in a single day)? The latter couldn’t really support five separate cultures (or even five separate nations in the same culture), while the former would take months to cross, even on horseback (and would make that bridge longer than any we have in the real world, which isn’t necessarily bad; I like the idea of a bridge it takes several days, if not weeks, to cross).
Either way, the lake/inland sea is very large compared to the land mass. Generally, one should assume that water “wants” to flow out to sea, and thus to keep the lake that large, you have to stop the water from leaving (or at least keep it slow). The river however, is very thick, with a very large delta, which implies that a lot of water is flowing through it. It’s possible that the lake is replenished by rainfall from the mountains, but I don’t think that would realistically be enough. I think that there are two ways of solving this while leaving the map basically the same.
The first would essentially make the lake an inlet of the sea (so water does flow out at low tide, and back in again at high tide). The former river could be thickened, and a few more “rivers” could be added between the lake and the sea. This would make the lake salty, and would create some very interesting tidal effects (whirlpools, etc) in the river. The second (and likely more appropriate) method would be to make the river much narrower, with a much smaller delta.
As I said before, you could just say that the gods made it that way (or use some other magical explanation), and it would be fine. I hope this is helpful; good luck with your story.
Edit: didn’t see your second reply – size of Europe sounds good for the various cultures (but you can’t ride across it in a day). If it’s just for approximate positions, then there’s no real problem beyond that.
Thank you so much!
All I ask is for an opinion not matter your experience.
As for the rest of your message it all sounds very reasonable I will take it into consideration. What are your thoughts on either closing it up completely or widening the river so it is more of a straight? (Wider than the bridge is long)
@Kelvin
Widening it into a strait would be similar to my first suggestion (direct connection, salty “lake” and cool tidal features – although fewer of these the wider the strait is). Closing the lake off completely would be possible, although I would wonder why there wasn’t any kind of flow between them (potentially there was a river, but it has since dried up, and the lake is low enough that it isn’t overflowing). To be honest, you could probably get by just fine by narrowing the river, and potentially decreasing the size of the lake (or inland sea, given how large it actually is) compared to the continent.
To be honest, I wouldn’t really have any problem if I saw the map in a novel, but I think it’s great that you’re thinking so much about it.
The only real problem that I can see (as I mentioned earlier) is the travel time. It would take about 2 days driving non-stop to get across Europe (Lisbon to Moscow); by foot it would take over a month (and that’s without breaks; with breaks you’re looking at three or more months). I imagine that a trained messenger on horseback could probably make the journey in a month, although I doubt it would be fun.
Good luck with the writing!
Hey guys!
I’m making a large plot decision and I thought I would get your input before I continue. What do you guys think?
What is it I’d like to help…?
Three people said they want me to add stuff but idk what to add.