How to Create Your Own World Map!
Feb 8, 2018 16:39:19 GMT -5
phantomstar57, mintedstar/fur, and 2 more like this
Post by » ѕнαdσω ⚔️ on Feb 8, 2018 16:39:19 GMT -5
Hey there! Shadowface here. I'm here today to teach you how to create your very own world map!
No one world map is going to be the same, and you want yours to be especially unique. Yet uniqueness is not the most important part of your world. It must also work mechanically; whether or not its realistic is up to you. But what I use to make my maps is fairly realistic. This is because I base all of my worlds on our world: Earth.
This is where some of you may not benefit from this post. If your world is not earth-like, then you won't be using this method I am about to show. Your rules for your world are going to be different.
If you were to look at the Earth, you would see that all of its landscapes and environments fall within very specific areas thanks to the Earth's tilt on its axis, its wobble on the axis, and its rotation around the sun. These three components give us our seasons and also determine where and how certain "land types" will fall.
These areas are called "Hadley Cells" which are large-scale atmospheric convection cells in which air rises at the equator and sinks at medium latitudes, typically about 30° north or south.
Ok, so what does this mean?
If your world is earth-like with the same tilt, wobble and rotation, your world will also have these same "Hadley Cells" that Earth has. At the equator of your world, hot air rises because the equator is the one place that gets the most heat from the sun. When it rises, it takes that moisture and dumps it about 30 degrees north and south. Then it repeats.
At those areas where the moisture is trapped in the atmosphere...those are where the Earth's and your world's deserts are! If you look at a globe, you will see that Earth's major deserts fall in that area just above or below the equator. And where the moisture dumps is where you have tropical rain forests.
Of course the further north and south you go the less "wet" things become. Cold air dries out the moisture, creating vast tundra plains or taiga forests or polar climates.
So what you need to decide first is...where the heck is your continent located?
Is it above or below the equator? Or on the equator (like mine above)?
Once you decide where your continent is in relation to your equator, your landscapes and environments should fall into place. Deserts near the equator and tropical forests if you want them. I chose to have a large desert since my continent is surrounded by water (think Australia but on the equator). Sea Salt isn't good for tropical forests.
Less wet environments as you go north and south; forests, plains, maybe one or two smaller deserts, and eventually tundra and arctic conditions.
Now, once that is settled, you might be wondering: OK well what about mountains and valleys and cool landmarks? How do I decide where I put those?
Well, you've asked a great person. I happen to be studying Geology, and my favorite subject among all the studies under Geology happens to be Plate Tectonics! (Volcanoes, Earthquakes, rift valleys, mountains you name it!)
This is where your map making can take off and become SUPER detailed. This is some advanced stuff so hold on to those scientist brains!
Like the Earth, your world will have tectonic plates. Most rocky worlds will have these thanks to their proximity to the sun and their molten core which acts as a kind of conveyor belt for the rocky crust above.
Here is where you get to have some fun. You get to choose where your plate boundaries are!
For my map above, my continent is sitting pretty happily in the middle of a plate (for the most part) which is why so much of it is rather flat topographically and doesn't have many distinguishing features.
To the north there is actually a smaller tectonic plate that is ramming into the majority of the southern part of the continent, which is why you have a long chain of mountains. This is called a "convergent" plate boundary. A great example of this would be where the Himalayan Mountains lie; the entire plate of India is crashing into the southern Eurasian plate and forcing massive amounts of crust upwards into the sky. (That's why the Himalaya's are still growing because the plates are continuing to push into each other.)
Not all mountains have to be a convergent boundary though. If you want really high, active mountains like the Himalayas then yes, make it a convergent boundary and define it as two separate plates, but time can and will march on. Take the Davis Mountains where I am in Alpine. They too used to be the site of a convergent boundary between two plates, but now that boundary is no longer there, and yet the mountains have remained. They are more eroded and not "active" but they are still mountains.
There are also transform boundaries and divergent boundaries. Transform boundaries are the kind you see in California where two plates slide against one another, moving parallel to one another. Divergent is the exact opposite of convergent; the Rift Valley in Africa is a great example of this that you can see on land, but you can also see it on many of our ocean floors.
You can get volcanoes along any of these boundaries (more typical of convergent and divergent) but you can also get them from hot spots!
Hot spots are stationary up welling's of super heated magma from deep inside Earth's mantle. As a tectonic plate moves over this spot, it will create volcanoes and magma flows that sometimes cause massive eruptions or create islands.
Take a look at the southern end of my map. Do you see those giant blobs? Those are magma flows, and the islands that follow it are leftovers from previous times when the plate moved over this particular hot spot. Hawaii is the shining example of an active hot spot. You can trace how the plate has moved over this stationary up welling of magma by looking at the chain of islands. Yellowstone National Park's super volcano is also another hot spot. You can trace it's path by looking at the scars on the western united states.
Now, I could go into even more detail, but I think this is good enough to get you going! Here ia a break down (step by step) of what you just learned!
1. Is your world Earth-like or not?
2. If it is Earth-like, decide where your main continent of focus is in relation to the equator.
3. Draw out the shape of your continent. Be as creative as you'd like!
4. Trace out a thin line for your equator and begin placing in your landscapes. Remember, tropical rain forests and deserts will be on or just above or below the equator. It should go wet, dry, wet, dry ect. until you fill in your continent. It doesn't have to be exactly like this, but it is a place to start. The further north and south you get the more dry your environments will become.
5. Now decide where you would like to place tectonic boundaries. Correspond these with mountains, valley's and other land forms. You can also add a random hot spot or two to make some island chains or a big volcano!
*I hope this has helped you onto the right path for starting your map! If you have any other questions or want some feedback on your map, feel free to ask me!*
No one world map is going to be the same, and you want yours to be especially unique. Yet uniqueness is not the most important part of your world. It must also work mechanically; whether or not its realistic is up to you. But what I use to make my maps is fairly realistic. This is because I base all of my worlds on our world: Earth.
This is where some of you may not benefit from this post. If your world is not earth-like, then you won't be using this method I am about to show. Your rules for your world are going to be different.
If you were to look at the Earth, you would see that all of its landscapes and environments fall within very specific areas thanks to the Earth's tilt on its axis, its wobble on the axis, and its rotation around the sun. These three components give us our seasons and also determine where and how certain "land types" will fall.
These areas are called "Hadley Cells" which are large-scale atmospheric convection cells in which air rises at the equator and sinks at medium latitudes, typically about 30° north or south.
Ok, so what does this mean?
If your world is earth-like with the same tilt, wobble and rotation, your world will also have these same "Hadley Cells" that Earth has. At the equator of your world, hot air rises because the equator is the one place that gets the most heat from the sun. When it rises, it takes that moisture and dumps it about 30 degrees north and south. Then it repeats.
At those areas where the moisture is trapped in the atmosphere...those are where the Earth's and your world's deserts are! If you look at a globe, you will see that Earth's major deserts fall in that area just above or below the equator. And where the moisture dumps is where you have tropical rain forests.
Of course the further north and south you go the less "wet" things become. Cold air dries out the moisture, creating vast tundra plains or taiga forests or polar climates.
So what you need to decide first is...where the heck is your continent located?
Is it above or below the equator? Or on the equator (like mine above)?
Once you decide where your continent is in relation to your equator, your landscapes and environments should fall into place. Deserts near the equator and tropical forests if you want them. I chose to have a large desert since my continent is surrounded by water (think Australia but on the equator). Sea Salt isn't good for tropical forests.
Less wet environments as you go north and south; forests, plains, maybe one or two smaller deserts, and eventually tundra and arctic conditions.
Now, once that is settled, you might be wondering: OK well what about mountains and valleys and cool landmarks? How do I decide where I put those?
Well, you've asked a great person. I happen to be studying Geology, and my favorite subject among all the studies under Geology happens to be Plate Tectonics! (Volcanoes, Earthquakes, rift valleys, mountains you name it!)
This is where your map making can take off and become SUPER detailed. This is some advanced stuff so hold on to those scientist brains!
Like the Earth, your world will have tectonic plates. Most rocky worlds will have these thanks to their proximity to the sun and their molten core which acts as a kind of conveyor belt for the rocky crust above.
Here is where you get to have some fun. You get to choose where your plate boundaries are!
For my map above, my continent is sitting pretty happily in the middle of a plate (for the most part) which is why so much of it is rather flat topographically and doesn't have many distinguishing features.
To the north there is actually a smaller tectonic plate that is ramming into the majority of the southern part of the continent, which is why you have a long chain of mountains. This is called a "convergent" plate boundary. A great example of this would be where the Himalayan Mountains lie; the entire plate of India is crashing into the southern Eurasian plate and forcing massive amounts of crust upwards into the sky. (That's why the Himalaya's are still growing because the plates are continuing to push into each other.)
Not all mountains have to be a convergent boundary though. If you want really high, active mountains like the Himalayas then yes, make it a convergent boundary and define it as two separate plates, but time can and will march on. Take the Davis Mountains where I am in Alpine. They too used to be the site of a convergent boundary between two plates, but now that boundary is no longer there, and yet the mountains have remained. They are more eroded and not "active" but they are still mountains.
There are also transform boundaries and divergent boundaries. Transform boundaries are the kind you see in California where two plates slide against one another, moving parallel to one another. Divergent is the exact opposite of convergent; the Rift Valley in Africa is a great example of this that you can see on land, but you can also see it on many of our ocean floors.
You can get volcanoes along any of these boundaries (more typical of convergent and divergent) but you can also get them from hot spots!
Hot spots are stationary up welling's of super heated magma from deep inside Earth's mantle. As a tectonic plate moves over this spot, it will create volcanoes and magma flows that sometimes cause massive eruptions or create islands.
Take a look at the southern end of my map. Do you see those giant blobs? Those are magma flows, and the islands that follow it are leftovers from previous times when the plate moved over this particular hot spot. Hawaii is the shining example of an active hot spot. You can trace how the plate has moved over this stationary up welling of magma by looking at the chain of islands. Yellowstone National Park's super volcano is also another hot spot. You can trace it's path by looking at the scars on the western united states.
Now, I could go into even more detail, but I think this is good enough to get you going! Here ia a break down (step by step) of what you just learned!
1. Is your world Earth-like or not?
2. If it is Earth-like, decide where your main continent of focus is in relation to the equator.
3. Draw out the shape of your continent. Be as creative as you'd like!
4. Trace out a thin line for your equator and begin placing in your landscapes. Remember, tropical rain forests and deserts will be on or just above or below the equator. It should go wet, dry, wet, dry ect. until you fill in your continent. It doesn't have to be exactly like this, but it is a place to start. The further north and south you get the more dry your environments will become.
5. Now decide where you would like to place tectonic boundaries. Correspond these with mountains, valley's and other land forms. You can also add a random hot spot or two to make some island chains or a big volcano!
*I hope this has helped you onto the right path for starting your map! If you have any other questions or want some feedback on your map, feel free to ask me!*
