Fantasy Maps - Tumblr Posts

I just realized! I never uploaded any of my D&D maps here? I should do that. This one is from the game I run with my lovely 7-person group. The time of the Great Cities is over and The Magor Valley is now dominated by goblin tribes. If only someone could do something about it.

I just realized! I never uploaded any of my D&D maps here? I should do that. This one is from the game I run with my lovely 7-person group. The time of the Great Cities is over and The Magor Valley is now dominated by goblin tribes. If only someone could do something about it.

Nobody asked for this, but like... Have some lore from one of my made up worlds.

There is a map to help with imagination a bit! It was made in an online thing called Inkarnate.

Also, the text below is long, but that's just some minor information about some parts of world that seem relevant to the main story. It's very small part of my entire worldbuilding.

You may, during the reading, discover word "fi" or "fie", which is basically another word for elf/elves of this world.

Now, out of the locations I have written lore of so far, I've decided to choose three, first one being

Last Retreat:

The ruined fortress, now only kown as the Last Retreat, gained it's name during the Fourth Age, when Falrid, leader of rebellion, after multiple defeats, managed to hide in here with a small group of survivors from their latest battle. They hid in the secret passage as the royal army went through the old crumbling corridors, attempting to end the lives of Falrid's men and bring Falrid to the so called ''justice''. They managed to find them in the end. The remnants of rebellion fought bravely, but they were against too many people who were in far better shape than them. Once Falrid discovered that the plan was to take them hostage, they decided to commit suicide by jumping into the raging sea from the top of the tower.

The Last Retreat was built in the early Second Age on the command of sister of Nomion the Religious, Nardi. It's initial purpose was to function as a lighthouse, but during multiple smaller conflicts, it served as a fortress and was repurposed to better suit its new job.

~

The second being the area around Alzhad, The Marshlands:

Once a homeland for half-blooded fie that could not survive without water, now just a wasteland filled with their bitter blood and mostly fallen apart villages. The genocide that was organized by Nomion the Religious - the first ruler to openly promote his relationship with Gods - has taken place during the Second Age and the thirty days and nights it had taken to wipe the half-blooded population is now known as The Days of Weeping Souls.

During the Fourth Age, rebellion led by Falrid sought refuge in the ruins of the city Alzhad - the biggest city to be ever built in the Marshlands. The royal army that was dispatched to eliminate this significant portion of rebellion sadly damaged Alzhad even further and the city is now almost unrecognizable.

The Marshlands tend to be covered in mist that conceals the sun most of the times, allowing many animals that would not thrive in the sunlight to live in here. Most of these animals are ambush predators that will gladly eat meat of any fi that may be foolish enough to get caught.

As an addition to these predators lurking in the still, murky waters of questionable depth, another reason for no signs of re-population since The Days of Weeping Souls is the simple fact that no plant seems to be able to survive in the conditions, no matter how much magic is used to keep it alive and healthy. There had been discussions over ehether the land had been poisoned or cursed, but whatever ailment affects the ground, it has no effect on the water, which is, provided that you find one of the few sources that is not contamined with mud, completely safe to consume.

~

And the third one is Tokrë's Shrine:

This place is a ruin of a village that surrounds a statue of Tokrë, one of the Heroes of the Old World. The village itself is overgrown and currently unihabitable due to the poisonous spores released by a rare kind of mushroom that had been only found in this place and any attempts to get rid of it became a failure.

The village is located near to Tokrë's lake, the deepest natural lake in all of Niraquen, and surrounded by mountains.

Despite the convenient location, little to no animals live in surroundings of Tokrë's Shrine. One of the explanations has been the fact that the poisonous spores were creating an enviorment that was unfriendly towards the animals, but this theory was proven to be wrong; the spores are only harmful in large concentrations, something that only happened in places where the air was not circulating properly. There is no actual explanation for the lack of animal species in this region, but no researchers seem to want to dive into this mystery just yet.

Nobody is really sure when exactly was this village left to rot, or who was responsible for building it. No records in any library show any mentions of any person attempting to live in this particular place. The researchers managed to date some of the equipment found in the houses, finding that the oldest pieces were from the beginning of the First Age (still in pristine shape) and the youngest being from the middle of Third Age. The mystery of the abandoned village is being studied by quite a few scholars at the time.

~

Wow, if you actually read all of that, thanks, if not and you just scrolled, well, can't blame ya, this text is really long.

I'm happy for any sort of feedback (even the negative sort)

Irredeamable developpement retrospective Part 3: The fountain So just as presented in the last part, this was my attempt at creating a single complex and interconnected setting for all of my games. I even had a bunch of games planned for this, including one some of you may have seen before.

This game was made on a whole other engine, so i won`t linger too much on it, but the planned story was about a small elf huntress, ascending the great titan (giant tree) to find increasingly imposing preys to hunt, such as troglodytes (giant frog people), drakes, wyrms, other sentient bugs and concluding on a battle with the nevermore, a black crow/dragon that served as the god of the tree.

Anyway, back to our actual game. The fountain took place in a nexus between several worlds, where several species from all over the multiverse lived, including humans, lizardfolk, goblins, elves, trolls, and several races of fae. At the heart of this world, was the coveted fountain, a well of pure magic that was the source of all reality and could remake it to the whims of any who were bold enough to find and use it.

From this premise, a main game was planned, an epic journey through the crossroads of lands, where a group from different races would meet and unite in their common quest to find the fountain and achieve their deepest wishes.

So the journey starts on human lands, a continent consisting of mostly deserts. The fountain is where i finally settled on an aesthetic for humans, making them mechanical, and fire-themed. They usually wield guns and use the metal, oil, and coal of their land to build fiery machines and factories. Other stories also give them the ability to nearly fully mechanize their bodies, turning themselves into metal demons. the second area would have been the lizardfolks/mermaid archipelago (don't ask why they are the second to last area in the plans, i dont know either) These would be themed around water and serve as an artificial/life amphibious force, working under the centaurians from the last few settings. The mermaids specifically were centaurians-humans hybrid, hence why they have features of both. Then the group arrives upon the mainland, where they are met with an overgrown swamp, infested with demi-fae, a group of several races mixed with fae blood, giving them the ability to use magic. This is followed by a series of urbanized forests controlled by the tiny, but industrious elves who are able to build dozens of man-sized war machines. The last obstacle on the journey is the shadowlands, a dark, cold, and desolated region, guarded by a race of ancient stone creatures. These old traditionalists and users of mystical shadow arts despise change and will do anything to prevent the fountain from being tampered with. ( i remember hearing the line "dwarves are incorruptible as stone" in shadow of mordor and it stuck in my head ever since, becoming a defining aspect of the trolls in my own stories.") And finally, the fountain, a place of infinite potential and home of the Fae, creatures that have been encountered during the whole journey, avatars of magic, nature and change. The fountain is a fantastical realm, a city of candy, floating over an ever-flowing lake of golden honey. The purest of faes reside in this realm, but they are far from the nature-loving beings met in the outside world. These Faes are cruel and ravenous, eager to consume the world and make a new one that will one day also be ruthlessly consumed.

Anyway, as you can tell from all the lore, i ended up putting a whole lot of effort into that setting. There was even supposed to be a whole second half of the game where the characters made their wish and the world would be twisted by the Fae magic into nightmares that would have to be fought and repelled before they replaced the region. We are slowly, but surely getting close to the end of this retrospective. Next we will go into the game that ended up giving irredeamable much of its mechanics. A small, self-contained story that ended up bridging the gap between the fountain and the current setting i have been building. See you in part 4: The city of dolls.

So, didnt have a lot of progress to talk about on my new game since i had taken about 2-3 weeks to work on other things, but heres some of the work i`ve been putting into the world map and struckture.

So here we have what i call "zone maps" which consist of rough drawings of what areas are planned and how they are placed and connected. Since the game is themed around fire and wilderness, most areas are fiery twists on common fantasy environments and explore the many forms that heat and fire can take.

Some notable areas are:

Great caldera/Caldera outskirts: (dark red) Since flamebearers are highly resistant to heat and fire, it was an interesting subversion for the first area of the game to be a volcano. Boiling ridge/Boiling caverns: (cyan) The water area of the game, featuring harsh cliffside battered by a raging sea and plenty of geysers and thermal vents.

Pyrewoods: (bright red) A perpetually burning forest. The trees have adapted a thick insulating bark to protect themselves from the flame. Ashen highlands: (pale grey) An expansive plateau, located above the smoke of the forest. Deposits of ashes from the forest and caldera, fertilize the ground, making it a suitable place to build fields and villages. Sundered plains: (bright orange) A deadly desert, with plenty of glass structures formed from the scorching heat battering the sand.

City of cynders/Charred city (brown) The capital of an ancient civilization, burnt to the ground in times long past. Now only rubbles of sandstone and glass remains, and many myths of how exactly this city may have fell...

Frostburn pass: A gnarly canyon where frost and flame meet. Located between the great caldera and the ashen highlands. Brimstone bogs (dark green) ADark, smouldering swamps, where monstrous creatures lurk. A place long abandoned by the flamebearers and left to rot. Fuming crags (purple) Toxic fumes emanate from ancient fissures in the ground, rendering this region extremely dangerous to korugues and flamebearers alike. In the distance, an old castle lurk, long abandoned by those who used to call it home.

The melting pot: A loathsome pit of molten sludge, the heart of a twisted curse that cannot be destroyed or contained...

- Since were giving some building here, lets also describes some faraway lands that exist i nthe lore, but wont be seen in the game. South west: Nameless islands The great sea house many archipelago, conquered by the descendent of the flamebearer of the sea. South east: The frozen continent A distant landmass, overtaken by the ruthless cold. Ruled by the descendent of the frostbearer who could channel its power into cold instead of flames. North west: The endless peaks Towering mountains, reaching higher than the eye can see. Conquered long ago by the flamebearer of the sky and her children. North: Desolated expanse The sundered plains make way for a great wasteland. Long ago, the flamebearer of earth crossed through the desert and was rumored to have found habitable land on the other side, but very few dared cross the waste to verify those claims. East: The dark lands Lush forests cover the landscape, but those lands have long been forbidden. It is said that none of those who ventured to the east, not even the eldest and strongest son of the original flamebearer, was ever heard from again. My goal with these was that i wanted to imply a much bigger world beyond what is seen in the game (compared to irredeamable, almost claustrophobic worldbuilding) This next game will have plenty of distant lands and families to speculate on. I probably just wont do much with them myself. Anyway, all that stuff is subject to change as i work on it. The maps i provided are already pretty inaccurate, but that just means there will be much to discover when the actual game comes out.

reminder to worldbuilders: don't get caught up in things that aren't important to the story you're writing, like plot and characters! instead, try to focus on what readers actually care about: detailed plate tectonics

all the tips I found for drawing a fantasy map are like :) “here’s a strategy to draw the land masses! here’s how to plot islands!” :) and that’s wonderful and I love them all but ??? how? do y'all decide where to put cities/mountains/forests/towns I have my map and my land but I’m throwing darts to decide where the Main Citadel where the Action Takes Place is

Did a thing for my upcoming comic- if you have questions, don't be afraid to ask. AND IK THAT SAYS TRANSACTION IT WAS MEANT TO SAY TRANSITION UGH

So I’m making a fantasy map thing bc I feel like it, but I’m realizing that I’m really clueless when it comes to geography and cartography and such. I figured that tumblr would probably have people who knew an unreasonable amount about map making and how environments work, so here we are.

Normal (?) map with a little key

Topographic(?) map, lighter colors are higher altitudes and darker colors are lower altitudes. Nothing quantified yet, mostly just vibes.

And a little of both. It’s not stylized or anything, just putting ideas into something I can see.

Okay so you've asked a relatively simple question which obviously means that I need to overexplain and create an unnecessarily long "here's how I do this thing." So here's how I do this thing

Step 1: Tectonic plates. Just draw lines. They don't need to be good, they don't even need to make sense. I don't do geography or geology but drawing lines pretty randomly seems like what nature did.

Boom. tectonic plates.

Step 2: make a continent. There should be more continent along the tectonic plates, because that's where land gets pushed up. I like making lots of islands, I feel like it makes it pop. Otherwise, just squiggly lines

Ta-da, you have a continent. This is one big one, but feel free to make oceans and such.

Step 3: Mountains. Throw some foothills in there too. I make mountains as varying sizes of bottomless triangles, and if you want to make them stand out more you can make crest lines with shadows. Mountains should follow the tectonic plates, at least mostly.

You can see here that I ignored the left most line of the tectonic plates and threw some mountains in the south. For fun.

Step 4: Rivers and lakes. These should be based on the mountains, at least partially. Runoff from the mountains will create a lot of the rivers, and water will pool in valleys, creating lakes. These aren't the only sources of water, but they're kinda most of what I use

You can see some of the rivers weave in between the mountains, because they'll flow towards the lowest point. I don't usually put a whole lot down, just some of the big ones I might use

Step 5: Biomes. This includes all kinds of plains, deserts, swamps, jungles, etc. I usually use different brushes to make these happen, but I only really make maps digitally so I might not be the person to ask with regards to traditional art.

The north and south are going to be colder and have pine trees, while the center has a large desert because I wasn't sure what else to do with the area.

Step 6: Details. In this case, I put waves to separate ocean from land, and water buffers to make the land pop out more, especially with regards to lakes

Use as necessary

Step 7: Cities and towns. Not always necessary, depending. You might want to mark out kingdoms and territories, but I just did large towns and cities. Most of them should be near a water source, but it's fantasy so do whatever.

Here, I marked the "old world" cities with black, and the "New World" cities with red, because that was relevant to this specific story. I like to give them all names, but depending on map size that might not be practical.

Et voila! A map. Anyways thank you for coming to my ted talk. I use maps as a place to put the story I'm working on, and will usually draw a timeline on them to help me out. I make maps specifically because they help me with my writing, and they are crafted with that and only that in mind. I'm sure theres a published author or a geographer who could give better advice but you know what its fine.

So yeah. Tectonic plates.

anyone know how to simulate plate tectonics when creating a fantasy map

Crap, forgot to post again.

Uhhhhhhhhhh, idk what to post this week.

Here’s a world map of Alterra, I guess. Next week I’ll delve into some of the cities

I practiced making Fantasy maps

One day, I got this idea of a city founded in the middle of a mountain chain, on the shores of a lake, as a refuge for the world's wizards and other magicians, a haven of knowledge and study away from war, restriction and oppression. So I drew a lake, then the city around it, then I sprinkled some interesting locations, then I remade it in Inkscape, and voilà.

Here's a list of the points of interest, and a bit of lore to go with them:

• the spires:

the council's spire is where the city's governing body meets

the oracle's spire is where the oracle resides, trains their successor, and can be asked to tell the future

the veiling spire is, arguably, the most important of the three, it generates the veil. The veil has two roles: to ensure the city's safety (acting as a barrier that stops people getting in), and to maintain the reliability of magic within the city. Saying that magic is reliable means three things: that it is powerful (you can do almost anything you want with it), that it is stable (the veil cancels out any irregularities), and that it is certain (the veil ensures that magic is spread evenly throughout the city, and acts as a sort of magic battery to tap into if need be)

• the academies: There are three of them in the city, they each offer their own specialized curricula in addition to a common, more general, syllabus. These institutions are where the next generations are educated in the arcane arts, so that they may perpetuate its mastery.

• the great library: Possibly the largest library in the world. Over the years it has gathered an immense amount of knowledge on virtually all topics. If you want some information about anything, start there.

• the guilds: The guilds are unions of merchants and craftspeople who congregate to discuss their trades, prices, practices to encourage or discourage. They also act as specialised institutes to learn specific crafts. They are the center of production and innovation of magical objects.

• Aisling's pantheon: When caretaker Aisling arrived in the city she was dismayed to see that there was no place of worship for the religious to gather in. So she decided to found the pantheon, so that everyone could have a place for their religion.

• the portal: As the city is hard to access, due to both the mountains and the veil, everyone use the portal to come into the city. The portal plaza is heavily surveilled, and before being allowed to leave the plaza one is questioned and searched.

• the grand antiquary: A museum and repository of artifacts, magical and mundane, powerful and ceremonial, both new and old, they are stored there when they are not being actively used or studied.

• the justiciar institute: Justiciars, who help dispense justice, are taught and trained here, they need to master eloquence and investigation so as to be able to plead both defense and accusation during trial. The justiciars are wholly separate from the city garrison.

• the high court: Where justice is conducted, a tribunal of three judges examines all cases. There Justiciars serve as advocates for the accused as well as accusers, on behalf of the city or of a citizen.

• Ariel's hospice: A place for recovery and treatment for all matters of injuries, diseases, ailments, or disorders. More than the center of health for the city, it is also the place where health professionals study and train.

• the granary: Where most, if not all, food is stored and produced. Often magically conjured or duplicated the abundant supply allows the granary to hand out both fresh produce and cooked meals. They also care for the blue forest.

• Stolas' botanical gardens: Full of exotic, magical, and all around interesting plants, this is the place for herbology, botany, and apothecary. They help the granary care for the blue forest.

• the blue forest: Nested in the heart of the city, the blue forest is a link to the feywild. Many feyfolk live there, it is a place of leisure, study, practice of magic, and it serves as a large public garden for all sorts of magical and mundane plants. Some say that the forest was a gift from the first fey inhabitants of the city, a permanent bit of the feywild in our world.

• Astaroth observatory: Situated at the summit of White Peak, the observatory is the best place to conduct astronomy. Thanks to its elevation and remoteness from the lights of the city below, it offers an unprennable view on both the city and the stars.

• Siobhan Fountain: Created by sorceress Siobhan at the founding of the city, it is imbued by powerful magic. Drop something valuable in and maybe, just maybe, you'll be granted a boon.