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Trifletraxor

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I kind of like the flipped one. Actually makes me dizzy to look at hard though. A little bit more messing with Spain(giving it a different shape, trimminig it down or stretching it out or something) might dull the easily noticeable Mediterranean bit though. The little sun thing is a kick. I am waiting for little teletubbies to come out around the sun mountain.:D

(Hey the smilies work at home. At school I cannot get them to work).

By the way thanks for the attachment thing. I tried it and this time it worked, at least sort of. :thumb: I think the first time I tried it I was not authorized.

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I'd make the land around the Sky Mountain bigger and the seas surounding it bigger still. I had to search around to find it, so it's not that obvious.

I'd also make the mountain ranges stretching past the Sky Mountain wider to emphasise them more.

The flipped map is better as it doesn't look like an earth-like map.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. 

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I held back from skewing Spain. Who am I to criticize Ptolemy?

Besides, I still reckon using a recognizable fantasy Earth, clearly not the original one, is a bonus. Is there any point hiding it's origins, when people can trace them via this forum (or ask us)? We can gain the benefit of 'instant familiarity' by using known geography and a few pseudo-historical cultures. (Plus the link back to RQ3...)

Hopefully the dizzying effect is just the low-quality of the jpeg. The original can zoom to any view you like, without loss.

Frankly, I think the Sky Mountain is daft. But if that's what people want...

Currently it is 250 miles across the base, but still looks piddly. I'll try doubling it (that'd make it 500 miles high, too - is that enough?) - later. It's not really central either, since I put it where the Himalayas should be, in a vain attempt at realism. But there's two approaches to fixing that: 1) Move it to the Caspian Sea; 2) expand the map China-wards, so it's current location becomes central. Given that deserts are wanted around it, I'd favour 2.

Opinions?

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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Been away for a couple of days and a lot has developed here. I do have to say I'm not a huge fan of basing the map on fantasy europe - is there a good reason to do so?

On the one hand we are designing a world very different than earth in the way myth replaces natural science and developing a distinct feel. To use earth geography kind of goes counter to the idea of making something distinctly different than bog standard middle ages earth resembling fantasy.

Just my two cents, I can live with it if need be, but am not taken with the idea.

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More water! :happy:

If we go for something like this, I'll resurrect my old Islandia plans with the old map, detailing that part of the world. :)

This also looks fairly interesting for the geography:

ProFantasy Software - Fractal Terrains Pro - map making for game, historical and hobby mappers

We can go with a random world, or feed in the map frogspawner is working on, raise a mountain in the middle, paint a desert around it, and adjust the zones away from the mtn.

I've got Campaign Cartographer 3 which integrates with Fractal Terrains, but not Fractal Terrains itself. It seems like a nice product and it is easy to make maps with CC3 from worlds made with Fractal Terrains (or so I hear - easy is a relative term when used in conjuntion with CC).

Do we really need Fractal Terrains though? It will make landmasses, but we don't need a spherical world with reality based geography and weather patterns for the fantasy project do we?

Whatever we do for a world, there is a style pack from the Cartographers Annual that emulates the style of the Islandia map we can use. Link here:

The Cartographer's Annual 2007

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I do have to say I'm not a huge fan of basing the map on fantasy europe - is there a good reason to do so?

On the one hand we are designing a world very different than earth in the way myth replaces natural science and developing a distinct feel. To use earth geography kind of goes counter to the idea of making something distinctly different than bog standard middle ages earth resembling fantasy.

I think most people aren't keen on the idea, but ever-hopeful, I'll try again!

Using some Earth geography - and, I'm assuming, some ancient cultures too - gives an advantage of instant familiarity. But making it clearly not Earth shows Authors/GMs they can play around with it, and not worry about slavish historical accuracy. There should be enough details like The Green and Asherayne (yes, and maybe even Sky Mountain) on it to show that it's not Earth. I'll also say, if you're worried about slipping into the 'bog-standard middle ages', then firmly planting the ancient cultures there helps avoid that. (Oh, and I like the link it gives to RQ3!)

My rationale is that the Sphere passed Earth, some of the gods saw it and said 'What if?' - and re-created a pseudo-earth as one of their playthings...

... we don't need a spherical world with reality based geography and weather patterns for the fantasy project do we?

Certainly not! But CC3/FT may be good for creating nice-looking pictures - with swirling clouds, and so forth. (AutoRealm may be free, but hard/impossible work to produce good-looking stuff, unless I'm missing the tricks).

Whatever we do for a world, there is a style pack from the Cartographers Annual that emulates the style of the Islandia map we can use.

Great!

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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Well it possible to get a good map with something like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.

Or even to alter a screen cap to add more to it. I haven't used CC3, but CC2 was somewhat limited. Taking a screen cap will let us modify things a bit more. Maybe cut and past some coastline here and there to alter it and make it unique.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Frankly, I think the Sky Mountain is daft. But if that's what people want...

Currently it is 250 miles across the base, but still looks piddly. I'll try doubling it (that'd make it 500 miles high, too - is that enough?) - later. It's not really central either, since I put it where the Himalayas should be, in a vain attempt at realism. But there's two approaches to fixing that: 1) Move it to the Caspian Sea; 2) expand the map China-wards, so it's current location becomes central. Given that deserts are wanted around it, I'd

favour 2.

Opinions?

. I know we have moved away from the Sci-Fi concept, but just how big is 'Sky Mountain supposed to be?" At 250 miles high, it is within the orbit of Earth's International Space Station. Do we want it that high? What is supposed to be up there?

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Well it possible to get a good map with something like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.

Or even to alter a screen cap to add more to it. I haven't used CC3, but CC2 was somewhat limited. Taking a screen cap will let us modify things a bit more. Maybe cut and past some coastline here and there to alter it and make it unique.

CC3 Produces much better looking maps than CC2. The advantage to using CC3 in conjuntion with something like Fractal Terrain is that you end up with a master map from which smaller details can be created from without giving having to worry about the scale or features matching up from map to map (Glorantha's scale problems between different maps are numerous).

. I know we have moved away from the Sci-Fi concept, but just how big is 'Sky Mountain supposed to be?" At 250 miles high, it is within the orbit of Earth's International Space Station. Do we want it that high? What is supposed to be up there?

The Sun lives at the top in his palace and comes out to illuminate and warm the world every morning.

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CC3 Produces much better looking maps than CC2. The advantage to using CC3 in conjuntion with something like Fractal Terrain is that you end up with a master map from which smaller details can be created from without giving having to worry about the scale or features matching up from map to map (Glorantha's scale problems between different maps are numerous).

I was aware of the scaling. It was my favorite CC2 feature. I just didn't know about the quality of CC3. Thanks.

The Sun lives at the top in his palace and comes out to illuminate and warm the world every morning.

Ah. In that case, maybe we should make it 93 million miles high! :eek:

But then I guess we'd have to call it space mountain, and that might require an arrangement with Disney. ;):P:D

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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I was aware of the scaling. It was my favorite CC2 feature. I just didn't know about the quality of CC3. Thanks.

CC3 uses extensive bitmab symbols and textures that are much more appealing than the old CC2 vector symbols (which are still supported). Of course the bitmaps don't scale anywhere near as well as the vector symbols, so a "Master" map should probably be all vector based, and from that master map you can make all your 'pretty' maps using the new symbols and effects.

Ah. In that case, maybe we should make it 93 million miles high! :eek:

But then I guess we'd have to call it space mountain, and that might require an arrangement with Disney. ;):P:D

Well, the sun is much smaller than ours, so should be closer. If it were 93,000,000 miles away it would seem roughly the same temperature across the whole world, not a firey/boiling waste immediately below it and growing gradually cooler the farther away you move.

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Well, the sun is much smaller than ours, so should be closer. If it were 93,000,000 miles away it would seem roughly the same temperature across the whole world, not a firey/boiling waste immediately below it and growing gradually cooler the farther away you move.

A thought about the Sun/Sky Mountain: how about if, instead of sitting there on top of the mountain all day, the Sun God emerges from the 200-mile plus mountain at dawn, sits in his throne, and rises straight up for a few thousand miles until noon, then comes back down again by dusk? That should scorch the nearby lands nicely, keep the mountain short, and preserve 'sunrise/sunset'-type terminonlogy (which I bet people would slip into). The mountain could be a hollow tube - essentially a heat shield.

PS: how tall is the highest mountain in the solar system?

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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PS: how tall is the highest mountain in the solar system?

You incredibly brilliant forgspawner, you. That would be Mons Olympus, 24-27km high and 550km across. And, quite swipe-able for Sun Mountain.

ig5701mountains02mn9.jpg

In fact, if we were to take some non-Earth landscapes, and just add water...

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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A thought about the Sun/Sky Mountain: how about if, instead of sitting there on top of the mountain all day, the Sun God emerges from the 200-mile plus mountain at dawn, sits in his throne, and rises straight up for a few thousand miles until noon, then comes back down again by dusk? That should scorch the nearby lands nicely, keep the mountain short, and preserve 'sunrise/sunset'-type terminonlogy (which I bet people would slip into). The mountain could be a hollow tube - essentially a heat shield.

PS: how tall is the highest mountain in the solar system?

According to the almighty Wikipedia, Olympus Mons is 27 kilometres high.

But, the Sky Mountain reaches up to the Sky. It doesn't really matter how high it actually is, because nobody can climb to the Sky (except Heroes or Gods). What's important is that it is visible from virtually anywhere in the known world.

I'm not that keen on the Sun sitting above Sky Mountain, to tell the truth. I'd rather it rises from the Underworld, travels to Sky Mountain, visits his family for an hour or so while stationary, then sets into the Underworld. It's more earthlike. has established mythological roots and feels better, it also allows for Dusk, Dawn and Night.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. 

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You incredibly brilliant forgspawner, you.

You're too kind. :)

In fact, if we were to take some non-Earth landscapes, and just add water...

Any suggestions, that might satisfy the non-earthers? (And, have any been rendered into CCx/FT already?)

What's important is that it is visible from virtually anywhere in the known world.

Even a notional 27km should be plenty if the 'earth' is flat, or slightly bowl-shaped...

I'm not that keen on the Sun sitting above Sky Mountain, to tell the truth. I'd rather it rises from the Underworld, travels to Sky Mountain, visits his family for an hour or so while stationary, then sets into the Underworld. It's more earthlike. has established mythological roots and feels better, it also allows for Dusk, Dawn and Night.

Sorry, do you mean you're ok with the sun rising above the mountain steadily during the day (after coming up through it from Below), or not? If not, and he's there all day, what gives dawn and dusk?

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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You're too kind. :)

Any suggestions, that might satisfy the non-earthers? (And, have any been rendered into CCx/FT already?)

I was just thinking that we could use modifed stuff for some of our maps. THe Mons Olympus photo above seems goot to me for Sun Mnt. With CC2 you could importa part of the mountain and use as a bit map for some close up shots. On top of it you could add Rurik's house, a bunch of sun worshippers, a city.

Even a notional 27km should be plenty if the 'earth' is flat, or slightly bowl-shaped...

Sorry, do you mean you're ok with the sun rising above the mountain steadily during the day (after coming up through it from Below), or not? If not, and he's there all day, what gives dawn and dusk?

I have visions of cultists watching the sunset much like Times Square on New Year's Eve. Speaking of years, we should probably have some event to differentiate years. Perhaps one day a year the sun sleeps in and lets his son (perhaps a comet/shooting star) do the job?

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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I have another sugestion: the planet earth 250 million years in the future.

Have a look at this:

Future +250

You can use it for a fantasy setting sci-fi or whatever you prefer. I just though that the idea of playing in the earth even if completely irrecognisible is quite cool.

As for myths, magic, etc. I would have magic/psionic that works due to evolutionary development and people explaining the world, magic, etc. with the religion/myths that they choose create. Meaning that the explanation that they give have nothing to do with reality.

I'll try to explain a bit more. Some people might have a thunder god, at the same time they have use of some thunder/weather magic or psionic hability. The teaching of hability is associated to the religion but that doen's mean that the god is real. Religions become a way you can study those habilities.

You can have chaos as a consecuence of mutations as a danger.

You can have very weird creatures.

You can have various intelligent species coming from different evolutionary branches, i.e. lizardmen, plant like elves if you want, various human like species coming from the homo sapiens and even ducks!!!

I think that's all.

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Just wondering about the geography of Sky Mountain World.

Stretching from the Sky-shelf Mountains in the east to the shores of the Open Ocean in the west lies the forested lands of Efirvia, often simply called: The Green.

If we use the reverse map, this doesn't really fit as the Seas are to the East of the Sky Mountain and the Sky-Shelf Mountains nearby.

If we use the other map, then this does fit as the seas are to the west of Sky Mountain.

I'd prefer to use the reverse map and say the Green stretches from the Sky-Shelf Mountains to the West to the Open ocean in the East.

I've marked where I think The Green should/could be on those maps. Unfortunately, I don't have an iota of artictic talent and I can't even use drawing packages to produce reasonable maps, so I've just marked the areas using lines in Paint. Perhaps someone else could put the Green in properly.

post-36-140468074138_thumb.jpg

post-36-140468074142_thumb.jpg

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. 

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Looking at where I've put the Green, it's a pretty good barrier to travel between east and west.

You'd have to go by sea or cross several mountain ranges to the south. You could travel up the rivers and through the inland seas, I suppose, but that would be a dangerous journey.

I can see the mountain ranges being the natural borders between kingdoms. There is one area almost surrounded by mountains, another in a large loop of mountains, another next to it surrounded on three sides by mountains and two areas with mountains to one side and spearated by another range with a river system making up another natural border. So, that makes five natural kingdoms to place.

I'd put tundra in the north and south with forests and steppe in the north and possibly desert and jungle in the south. I'm not sure why I think the South should be desert and the North steppe, it just feels right that the South has more wasteland. Perhaps the Ancients had their cities in the south and that's where the demon army came from, so that's where the land was blasted.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. 

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Stretching from the Sky-shelf Mountains in the east to the shores of the Open Ocean in the west lies the forested lands of Efirvia, often simply called: The Green.

I planned on using the name Sky-shelf Mountains, but the open-ocean was just a place holder. The green could be located anywhere, but if you flip your lines over using the sky mountain as the fulcrum or centerpoint, the green would fit nicely in what I think is the region of India. On the inversed map this would seem to fit nicely. A couple of broad rivers with big delta, Mountains in the north-east, seas to the west. In addition it is a little out of the way which it a plus for what I had in mind.

294/420

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I planned on using the name Sky-shelf Mountains, but the open-ocean was just a place holder. The green could be located anywhere, but if you flip your lines over using the sky mountain as the fulcrum or centerpoint, the green would fit nicely in what I think is the region of India. On the inversed map this would seem to fit nicely. A couple of broad rivers with big delta, Mountains in the north-east, seas to the west. In addition it is a little out of the way which it a plus for what I had in mind.

Hmm, so perhaps something like this.

That means no Inland Seas within the Green, which is a shame. But, depending ho far it spreads, it might reach the mountains in the east or it might peter out before the mountains, leaving an area of farmland between the mountains and The Green.

post-36-140468074145_thumb.jpg

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. 

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Precisely what I was thinking - but you beat me to it!

The version I was working on also has the scorched desert areas around Sky Mountain...

post-87-140468074148_thumb.jpg

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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That looks good. If my spacefarers ever come to visit this world, they will ha-

ve a perfect place to land (or is it "to water" ?) off the coast of The Green -

unless they would use a Gate, of course.

By the way, has anyone proposed where a Gate could be in this world ?

If there is only a single Gate, I would prefer a "central" location, perhaps

close to the Sky-shelf Mountain, but preferably not in the desert.

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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Woha! Ideas are coming so fast it is hard to get my head around them. :)

That looks about perfect. I know I originally used the word "Vast", but with the maps I started drawing I kind of made the green smaller, more local, and easier to have races interacting. It is now much bigger again which is perhaps a good thing as it looks like the green may become a mini-shared world of its own. Maybe even leave vast stretches fairly undefined so people can generate their own ideas.

That means no Inland Seas within the Green
I do not think it would be to hard to through one or two in. This does not need to go on the big map right now but can be added later. I had several big lakes in some of the original sketches. The more I think about this the better it sounds. (I live on the shores of lake Michigan, so there may be ideas I can drag in from the Chippawa or the early French fur traders).

leaving an area of farmland between the mountains and The Green.

I had not planned on this. I originally thought that the green would rise up to the edge of the mountains. The land just before the mountains would be higher, rocky with gorges coming out from the mountains; not nearly as swampy as the rest of the green. I even thought of them as shelves or enscarpments. The mountains facing the green I figured were almost like cliff faces, very steep and tall with the gorges leading into them. The thing is is that there is plenty of space on the proposed map so different areas of the green could be a little different.

By the way, has anyone proposed where a Gate could be in this world ?

Originally, The gorges coming out of the mountains contained gates. One of the major gorges was called the gate teeth, a second one was called the demon's (teeth because on either side of the gorge would be to plinth-like mountainous spurs of rock). They both would eventually lead to caves. The gate teeth would lead to a gate and perhaps a tunnel that comes through on the other side of the mountain. The region around the Demon's teeth would be a nasty area like Snake-pipe Hollow.

294/420

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Originally, The gorges coming out of the mountains contained gates. One of the major gorges was called the gate teeth

Ah, now I have a language problem: The gorges are the valleys where the

rivers come out of the mountain range, right ?

If so, perhaps you could include some kind of (at least partially) water-filled

cave system (labyrinth ?) under the mountains, as a Gate in a flooded cave

would make the perfect "other end" of the Gate I already located in a similar

place on Pharos IV ?

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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