Creating a Realistic Fantasy Map | Fantasy World-Building
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This is a good map but one thing really worth noting is that in the real world tectonic plates basically NEVER join at X splits, they only ever form T splits. The only spot on earth where it comes close to that is the south Philippine plate, and even there its just two nearby T splits. That is to say, no place should have 4 different tectonic plates touching. The same rule generally goes for national or political borders as well, that is unless there's a good worldbuilding reason for it, for instance the grid system which resulted in the straight line borders of the American west. When drawing borders or tectonic plates, it feels easy to just continue a line beyond another line, but this almost never happens in a realistic setting.
this is solid advice! Insert "The More You Know!" gif
I came to the comments to say the tectonic plate thing, but I never thought about it with borders.
@TheFantasyForge is it bad if someone put a continent or a country that already exists in the real world like china or Egypt etc?
but i mena if its another world a place can have x plats its not earth
@@chigchong2805 it can but to create a truly believable fantasy world you want to borrow basic details like this from the real world, just saying "its not earth it can be different" without providing a significant reason for it to be different is just justifying bad writing.
also the MOST IMPORTANT RULE for fantasy maps: logic and reason for things is nice but its fantasy the "rule of cool" can be employed at any point you have to find YOUR balance between realism and creativity
I prefer to keep both to 100%. Everything grounded and real but I hardly see that as limiting. Like is speculative biology and evolution. Shits wild.
Or just easily dont have realistic world.
True it can be 50% realism and 50% fantasy or only have 10% of realism and the rest of the 90% just fantasy. I feel like it restrain Imagination to stick to realism when creating a world
@@Sacration Yeah dont forget its your fantasy, if you want put moutains and rivers where you want, you are the one who says why its like that.
@@Aetherbeen Lol, "No Earth Scientists Are Allowed to Play in My Fantasy Game!"
My trick is: get our actual real world map, pick a part of the world far away and unfamiliar to the place where you live, change the identifiable country or continent borders by removing or annexing other places until it looks cool. Ta-da! Now I know climate, terrain, rain patterns, population density.... Big cities in game are irl capitals, so if my characters want to go from city a to city b, I just open Google maps, check how many km apart they are and how the terrain is. Accurate info all the time! Never again shall I hear "your river is running upwards!!"
Pro tips haha. Love it
THIS is the Patrician method. Absolutely based.
That line 'Your river is running upwards' just gave me an idea for the rising falls - anyways thanks
Deserts can also easily form on one side of tall mountain ranges because rainfall and dense clouds typically won't make it past the height of the range. As a result one side can be densely forested while the other is barren and dry due to the denial of moisture.
Isn't it kind of wild how mountains being in the way does that? Nature is cool.
That's when you need to know your latitudes to work out the prevailing wind directions. Between the equator and 30° the winds are blowing west towards the equator. Between 30° and 60° they blow east towards the pole. And between 60° and 90° they blow west and away from the pole. Because the winds are blowing away from the 30° parallel you get deserts around there as any moisture is being carried away. At 60° you get storms and rainfall as the cold polar winds collide with the hot desert winds. And at the equator you get huge amounts of evaporation from any bodies of water producing rainforest and jungle and hurricanes.
@@nagillim7915 iirc, this happens due to the rotation of the earth. If you were to create a world where the sun rose in the west, and set in the east, then it would be the opposite of how it works on earth.
@@Jeff55369 - yeah, the prevailimg winds are formed by the coriolis effect so if the planet rotated in the other direction the climate would flip east/west.
@@TheFantasyForge It's called orthographic lift. You take moist air moving towards the mountains and then hitting those mountains, it gets forced upwards. This lifting causes the air to cool and the water vapor to condense and fall. When the air finally gets over the mountains, it has lost it's moisture and is now arid. A prime example of this is the Pacific Northwest in the US where you find temperate rainforest on the west of the Cascade Mountains and arid, desert plains on the east.
You should look into rain shadows to aid in the placements of deserts and jungles
Rain shadows 👀👀👀👀
Rain shadows and tropical and subtropical zones too! Due to the water cycle, areas bordering the tropics should be deserts UNLESS they have water cycled in from coastlines. Eastern coastlines at the subtropica are frequently green thanks to the cycles’ direction, whereas western coasts remain dry (see california and Iberia)
I decided to give my world 2 suns, a baby one that orbits the planit and one that the planet orbits. Possibly leading to the equator being colder rather than warmer...still researching this.
@@aaronpapke9763 you could make the equator hotter making a maze runner like area creating to very distinct cultures on each side of the world
Rain shadow legends
One note, it is very rare for rivers to split. Forks in rivers are generally formed by two rivers joining together from separate higher points, not one river finding two equally low points, though it is not impossible, just rare Edit: someone else already said this and now I feel dumb. Great video btw I was kinda hoping to see more about it
Lol no that's good to know!
The one exception that I know of is the Mississippi River actually splitting off to form a smaller stream in the Mississippi Delta. In fact, we've been trying to fight the river from changing course for decades.
Deltas are formed by silt being carried down stream by the river and generally form where the river stops (either at a lake or ocean shore). The silt buildup being a dynamic process often leads to rivers bifurcating and often numerous times if the delta is large enough. This can also happen if the river is flowing through a very flat area, such as with the Mississippi. Also note, rivers will tend to wander while travelling across a flat plain but will follow the low path in hilly terrain.
@@TheFantasyForge This is generally the case, but honestly, it happens more than the river police would like to admit. Just in Crater Lake (Oregon), for example, there are 3 rivers that flow out from it, instead of just the 1 that the river police would have you believe. 1 flows into 1 river basin. The other two flow into an entirely different river basin.
@@amayasasaki2848 there's always an exception somewhere, and even more so when there's magic involved haha
These are some great tips for building the world, but I would not share this kind of map with the players. It's a great GM tool, but showing the entire world to the players can make the world feel small and already explored. For the players I much prefer regional maps that are drawn by an in-world character. The kind of map that has pretty good information about the local area, but gets kind of fuzzy on the details as you approach the edge. That way you get to play with the bias and limited knowledge of whoever drew the map. The royal cartographer of a kingdom might be able to draw a pretty good map, but if it's drawn by a random peasant it might only be a crewed scribble showing the way to the nearest town, with maybe a warning to absolutely not take a right when passing through the forest. Give the players a map with some parts missing or limited knowledge. Maybe the local people simply don't know what is on the other side of the mountains as no one has returned from there. Or maybe a treasure map with the last part torn off. Maybe the map is really old and shows a great city where there now is only jungle. That kind of map is almost begging the players to go and explore for themselves.
Definitely! Actually I didn't realise until now that I have never shown my players the whole world, lmao
While not a DnD played, I have been worldbuilding for my story for a few years, and it changed from a really bad map with few countries and dumb history, and i saw it as just all rolling grass hills with a little desert and a little snow and that was it. Over the past few years, i have recreated the map around 10-15 times, and the final version that i am currently working on his so deep and rich with history, that the entire world just feels lived in, its been my little pet project for ages 😅
And even though players (or readers in your case) won't see most of it, it really helps you as a storyteller doesnt it?
@@TheFantasyForge yes, its really helped me develop myself as a writer and storyteller, in recent times ive tried making the worlds political affairs more important in the story, as the world is just so unstable, so the history ive made explains how it got to that point, i dont go too far back in time to the point that its useless, just far enough back to show how the world is so unstable at the time the story is set Also it gives me opportunities to tell many stories set on the world in different time periods 😁
Not sure if anyone else has said this but plate margins do move from under mountain ranges. Especially old worn mountains like the Scottish Highlands and the Appalachians. Those were formed when North America crashed into Asia during the formation of Pangaea. Tens of millions of years later the currents in the mantle had moved and a new upwelling formed beneath Pangaea and tore the continent apart forming the Mid-Atlantic Rift. By chance this tore North America and Eurasia apart again but at a slightly different angle, which left the northern extremity of the ancient Appalachians behind in Europe (and that became the Scottish Highlands).
This is the guide I’ve been looking for forever! I love how you mentioned that magic is a valid explanation for geography not making sense. I have important areas of one of my maps that I couldn’t make realistic without having to rewrite the stories that take place there. I always hear people say that’s cheap or lazy, but it’s why I love writing/drawing fantasy
I mean a lot of people were commenting on my rivers not being realistic, but who's to say a mage didn't form them? I mean if you can have floating cities, why can't you have little changes? Haha Thanks for the comment, glad I could help! Looking to create more of these :D
One note: Islands also are most likely to form on the edges of tectonic places. And another fun facts: old rivers are wider and run more straight as the water created new paths, while new rivers find paths of least resistance at first, and old mountains are smoother than newer ones.
hey, the more you know! I learned something new today haha. One of these days I'm going to redraw this map
Best example is the Olga Hills and Ayers Rock (or Uluru) in central Australia. They are worn remnants of old mountain ranges.
Another thing to keep in mind if that our idea of "River" is very influenced by rivers that have been partially canalized. If your civilization can't/doesn't do a lot of rerouting rivers and drying wetlands they'll have far more smaller rivers, "offshoots" that form and get lost again, isles inside the rivers, areas that are deeper and ones that are less deep, small lakes or areas of more stagnant water along the way as well as more temporary splits and overall far more curves.
@@teaartist6455 oh yeah, but what civilization does, doesn't have to follow any natural rules. In my world migrating races rerouted two major rivers to create giant sea in the middle of the continent dominated by the deserts. But you are absolutely right that shapes will be influenced by what civilization does.
@@czokalapik True, but depending on what tech level/willingness to muck about with terraforming you have you may end up with a much different landscape and a lot of Fantasy takes the very, very surface level vibes of a time period where things like rerouting rivers would have been an absolutely herculean task and only really done for small rivers (to hook them up to mills and such) or in big, government projects for super important people (we have a canal like that close; it was built by prisoners of war). There's also the consideration of which rivers are rerouted. With the Rhine it happened early due to Malaria, but with a lot of the smaller rivers and wetlands they stayed mostly intact sometimes until the 50s. Magic CAN change this, but my point is less "Don't do this" but "Be aware that the world we live in has been very strongly shaped by us, that the "default" is different and that a lot of that change may or may not have been feasible with the tech in your story/world". (I'm also not saying "Don't set Fantasy in a world with different technological development, cultures and general vibes" please do! But often the jumping off point/what people do IS centered on what they think the middle ages were like based on fantasy books.)
I draw mine by hand and ive literally spent hundreds of hours drawing them out and coloring them ❤
This is what I needed for my map. The stepping stone process is really well lain out. Thanks!
glad to hear it helped! I remember reading a blog way back when that did this and it was a HUGE help. Figured a video might help haha. Thanks for the love
@@TheFantasyForge 🍻✊
You should also check the direction where winds blow and water currents These two move giant air masses over the world, they have different temperature and wetness For instance, in our world winds usually blows from west to east, so of it faces a mountain chain, then a territory before it would me more wet, than the territory after, winds carry water that rains and create rivers Look at Australia it has really waterd coasts but then there's a mountain chain and territory inside the continent is very dry Or a Gulfstream current which warms the whole Europe but then it loses temperature and Siberia is very cold, also it has not any mountains in the North so cold Arctic wind freely goes there
GREAT description. This is stuff I don't know, but I find fascinating.
Just pick a real landmass in the right climate zone, flip it upside down, & rename the features & cities. Boom, all the plate tectonics, mountain ranges, rivers, deserts, & cities are done for you. If you’re making a medieval fantasy world, just reduce the size of the cities.
This is cool! Love this for a quick map
YorkNew City
I'm sorry, but where has this genius been all these years? Give this guy a medal. Bloody brilliant!
@@ailynrenee1796that’s what George RR Martin did. He just moved the British isle around and stacked em on top of eachother to get Westeros. Essos is a different beast.
DM: "Creates the most detailed map with interesting backstory for each land with a proper history" Players: "where's the skip butt-? Oh, look at those unarmed civilian, lets kill them! (said the holy paladin)"
LOL this made me laugh. 100% happens all the time
Once the major geographic features are in place, and you're moving to the political, I think it's far more helpful to think in terms of where the major cities would be (due to food, resource, and trade reasons dictated by geography) rather than countries. Once you have those cities, which are inherently centers of political power, you are in a great place to develop empires, countries, independent city states, republican leagues and the like, as you consider how the different political centres in cities influence and compete with each other. The geography tips here (which are great; well done) help us build a world where the environment makes sense and feels real. Starting with cities will lead to a world where the political divisions make sense and feel real.
SOLID advice, appreciate this comment. Honestly, so true. Since making this video I've already learned so much. Definitely gonna be updating the map
little other tip: rivers don't split. the only place you'll see rivers splitting is in a delta, at the mouth of the river, and even there only under the right circumstances. instead you'll always find that two rivers will come together to form a bigger river. great example that comes to my mind is the Rijn, the rivers that flows from Switzerland through Germany, absorbing small rivers the entire way, until the reaches the flat netherlands where it'll split a bit before it reaches the sea. same goes for lakes: lakes don't have two rivers coming out of it. rivers form when water can fill an area. if it can be filled to such a height that the water overflows the basin it'll also have an exit river, but it won't have two exit rivers as that would require two spots to be the same lowest height of the basin, AND stay that way, if one exit erodes faster then the other the other will be fed less, thus erode less, thus be fed even less, until the lake only has one exit. a lake can have multiple inlets, but only one exit.
What if.. hear me out.. my world doesn’t have tectonic plates and is instead a world made by a cosmic God that just put mountains there cause he wanted to
even better! It would make everyone in the comments stop yelling at me lol
Lol
im half way through the video and just to make sure i dont forget, just in case its not brought up in the video: mountain ranges often times also shape the weater, in MOST cases one side of a mountain range tends to be more dry and one side tends to be more moist because the wind generally comes from one main direction and clouds have troubles to get over mountain ranges without dumping all their water, if you look at a map of southamerica you can see it quite well, but there are plenty of places you can see it, so if you want to incorporate different types of terrain/weather like snowy areas, mor arrid areas etc its allways a good idea to take your mountains and the direction of wind into consideration
Someone else mentioned that and I had no idea. I don't bring it up in the video because I didn't know. I'm definitely going to be redoing my map now that I have more insight into this! Thanks for leaving some love! :D
Man, being a player in one of your games must be a treat
I hope that wasn't sarcasm haha 😅 I'm definitely a nerd and love making things like this
@@TheFantasyForge No sarcasm lol, this video was amazing, is this gonna be a series? I'd love to see how you flesh out this map/world more
@@Reepsy love to hear that! Thank you for the kind words! And I wasn't planning on it, but I can definitely make some more. I'm already working on the prototype map, this one I just made for this video
Maybe some grand wizard of alteration magic managed to terraform the land to suit his kingdom’s needs and his large ivory tower sits in the center of a Great Lake.
Wow! Super good looking map and love how this is more of a tutorial of how to make things right, and how to make geographical landmarks than just bullet points of advice! My advice for others (which is super basic) but always remember settlements are made near fresh water access almost always. The only exceptions is if the town itself can make it's own water source like floating wizard isles, desert druids, etc.
always gotta think about WHY the place is there. Great advice!
Rain shadows, sea basins and the wind patterns they cause. Figure those out and you’re solid
I built my map based off a story that Ive been writing. I also just kind of put regions where I thought they would work best and would explain my story a bit better. Im loving the map. Its not extremely big, but its also not too small, as its just a continent. But yeah I can explain each location pretty well. Ive been making Fauna for each of my regions to add more life to the world.
Really interesting video, thanks a bunch for this.
thank you for the kind words!
Fantastic explanation. 🎉 I have been working on a world that has layers to it. They are divided by magically fueled season that phase in and out on a timeline. Figuring out how everything overlays is quite exciting.
Maybe I will have to edit this comment ( I am at min 5:11 of the video): When you showed your tectonic plates to form your mountains. I thought it would be very interesting if that whatever impacted the middle of the island to splitt it would have been so powerful to splitt the tectonic plates at this point like the islands. It could be the cause of many little and bigger earthquakes if it shattered the plates in more then two pieces there.
Ooooo that's cool. I'll pretend it was on purpose. Definitely on purpose. Not an accident. 😎
This was such a great video, I have drawn a few maps till now. But the way you do it here make so much sence to do. I have idea's for my world that I will not diviate (is this the propper word for I'm not going to change) from, but listening to your advice about how to do these things made me think about the world I want to create. Thank you so much for this video dude, keep it up.
Lol yes deviate is the right word! And thank you for the kind words, happy to help a fellow world builder
You really helped with making a dnd map for a campaign that I have been trying to make for like 2 months as a person that is new to being a dm you saved me from days of work, and it’s taking so long because I want it to be perfect and I have to get it my head that not all thing need to perfect as some thins just need to be done as you go by them so things are not in a perfectly straight line and can have so sway to the story
Glad I could help! Appreciate you taking the time to drop some love
Great advices. 1 thing we assume that over science cover everything correctly. What if mountains are actually just, idk, cut down trees from carbon based life forms? And so on... So main concern to create a leaving world - EVERYTHING has purpose and history behind it. Btw that is why you get lost in the world of Middle-earth.
Yes! It doesn't have to make sense to US it just has to make sense for the world
i think it could be cool to, instead of having really big countries, have smaller city states that sometimes might get connected and become a kingdom. i'd consider uninhabited land such as dense forests, deserts and mountains as wild lands. it would make sense that in a medievalish setting the governments wouldn't be able to have control over all the land. this could also be another thing you can use for story purposes: two kingdoms claim ownership over the wild lands however none can effectively keep control over it so what happens one day is that a patrol is sent by each kingdom for some reason and they end up in a fight because they both think they're being invaded
YES. This is what I'm talking about in other videos. You HAVE to think about how Kingdoms would be vying for power and how that affects their interactions. Love this idea.
Good information. I will definetly use these building block ideas. I world build in smaller segments, building off what players do in game as we play, so knowing a grounded method to build the next part of the world for players to explore is very helpful. Player are a great source for inspiration if I get stuck for ideas.
Players a HUGE part of of the world-building process for me too! But I also cant help building every little thing haha.
This is really cool. I’m glad I’m not the only person that really enjoys drawing maps and thinking about world Bing on this level.
It's honestly very zen haha. Thanks for the love!
really cool.
thanks for the love!
For mountains, there would be older mountain ranges formed from older clashes of tectonic plates, but they’re no longer like that - so itd just be a mountain range that doesn’t match up with the plates all too well anymore
Prevailing winds should be considered before rain as those winds will change what happens in a give region. For instance, the Himalayan mountains are the major reason for the monsoons in and around the S China Sea land masses
Whaaat well that's cool. The more you know
thanks for the video. what software are you using?
Working on a gunpowder fantasy video game inspired by elder scrolls, these really helps man thanks
Thanks! I appreciate that you took the time to mention that. But also, tell me about that world cuz that sounds DOPE
@@TheFantasyForge well damn didn't expect that ok, Now im not good writer hell not even a writer but this is the very rough draft. Basically in the old world there was a massive ice age got so bad some tried to venture anywhere just to not freeze to death, they would find the new continent to the west Ves (named similar amerigo Vespucci for my history nerds 😉) its this vast jungle continent with alien pink grass unlike the green hills of the old world. 3 races orcs, humans, moth folk.despite there being different races there's usually more separation in terms of cultures so there might be 2 group with only humans that see non human groups as more of an ally than each other. As for living different groups just had different solutions to "How do we build in this huge jungle." some cities just built upwards using tiny ground space to make huge cities. lands near water usually were easy to clear tress or just build on, and some built a majority if the city underground. so so far that's all the madness I got other than specific stuff like weapons spells gods philosophy act.
@@derrickjohnson4952 this gives me Frostpunk vibes but like, the world all that haha. Good stuff!
I just want to know how you created such crisp outlines. This way it must be easy to select the outline and draw on different layers within it. As someone who usually draws by hand I always struggle with creating one perfect continuous line in programmes. I'll look into your other videos and see if you explain it there (otherwise I have to look for other tutorials).
I created the basic outline in Inkarnate, and then brough that into photoshop and Krita to create the lines. The trick is super high definition, I think this was like 8000 pixels per side, and then using a stabilizer or something to fix the jittery lines as you're drawing them. Krita has smoothing that does a great job :) Trust me it took me a looong time to figure out how others did it and even this map I'm still not happy with how it turned out haha
Nice man... like the inspiration of the icon from dead cells
Everyone mentions that character and I have literally no idea who that is lol
It's a game@@TheFantasyForge 🎮😀
The planet in my story is exactly like Earth, the twist is that it was once inhabited by continental sized dragons, so the continents were formed around their corpses. I shaped the British Isles like a dragon's skull. I'll eventually do the other continents until the whole map resembles a dragon graveyard. I'm mad that I didn't think of this before, only when you talked about the Scar and how the lore would affect the landmass, so thank you so much for the tip, my lack of creativity was troubling me a lot lol
LOL glad I could help. That's a bad ass backstory
I have to assume that many of the people that think rivers don't branch out have never seen a map of just river systems. Normally they don't branch out until near the end, but they do indeed branch out. Except the Nile. That thing looks like a maze.
I was honestly drawing the rivers based on ones I saw on google maps haha
Alot of good advice I have a very similar way of going about things. But more specifically I like to put location names on my map and then make lore for them after. Before the campaign starts ideally but let's be honest we will do the beginning area then be lazy and "do it later". I made names of locations and it effected the lore of the world because I had to answer who and why would someone name a place that.
That's how I do it too! haha
There are several factors that contribute to the shape of the world. Plate tectonics and continental drift are one, but there is more: erosion is the second most important. Cosmic factors are also interesting, great impactors, meteorites, create many interesting features. Volcanism plays a huge factor too, complete with single mountains that are not part of mountain ranges. When I look at your map I would have thought that the divide between the north and the south was in itself a rift valley, separated by continental drift, pierced in the middle by a huge impact crater or a caldera of a super volcano. Rivers are not only water that flows downhill, the course of the flowing water is shaped by the relative hardness of the bedrock of the land through which it flows, the typical meander of a river is explained thus. Rivers play an important role in the erosion, as do winds and seawater, also the composition of the rock that is eroded is important, some kinds of rock are more susceptible to be eroded by water then others. Erosion furthermore has another aspect that is important for landscaping, that is sediment. Erosion means that the bedrock of a land is broken down to minuscule parts, and they move by force of the waterflow or even the wind. Ice also flows at very slow speed, glaciers produced most of the wide river valleys on our own world. Alluvial plains are formed by huge glaciers that move large masses of small pebbles and sand downward natural inclines.
This was an awesome read! I appreciate the comment. Always eager to learn more. I'll definitely be taking this into account when redesigning this map!
Remember plates can have oceanic or continental crust new zealand is a great example where the pacific plate subducts under the Australian in one part, the opposite in another and slides in a third. The spread of Australia from Antarctica following an impact Crater could be a good example for your split. Working out the spin and the Hadley Ferrell cells and tropic polar lines will show wind and weather patterns and with continents show global ocean currents. Earth null school tpw will give you a good idea of how rain patterns form showing where erosion and weathering will be slow or fast. Population density along rivers volcanic soils will impact state building as one city starts to dominate others.
Dude, YOU should make a video about this haha
@@TheFantasyForge lots of others have Oz geographics has one on the split, gns has some good ones on nz, amoc for currents and search Hadley cells. What I should do is build a world, what I may do is build the tavern model I got a year ago. 😆
@@TheFantasyForge and the algorithm blesses my feed with the exact video on world building describing what I was talking about with tools to do it. kzhead.info/sun/i5eaktZwsHOrq6M/bejne.htmlsi=29BXR4mf-8qtc5YF
good video, some good things to keep in mind about natural worlds. everything for a purpose
thanks for the love!
0:15 I’m taking inspiration from this map because it already has an excellent location without even needing icons or symbols, which is that island in the middle of that lake in the center. I assume it’s a crater, And one of my player’s first questions would be, “Hey, what caused” *points at crater* “that?”
Do it! I hope to have a better and updated version soon
Thanks man!
just something you should consider about scale, if your continent does stretch from pole to pole, the nations and rivers should appear far smaller than depicted especially for travelling. Your rules are solid, but the scale is a bit massive.
Yeah, I draw much more detailed maps when I get in closer, unfortunately there's only so thin I can draw without making it illegible in a video, but 100% something I take into consideration when making the big map. As for the nations, they are as big as they need to be :) The U.S alone stretches 3000 miles across and this world is actually a small moon so ;)
I was wondering about the equator from the first second I saw this. The tropics would be a great place to know too, what's the axial tilt of the planet? Does it even have a tilt (this would cause no seasons). Still, this is all very cool and things I've thought about when building a world like this.
So I thought about it AFTER I made this video lol. I definitely have a second draft of this map that I'm working on since I made this video
One thing I really like to do to make the map itself feel real is to style it after real historic maps. Not super stylized, often to the point and informational, especially if the map is an actual item. Nothing makes a map more realistic than proper styling and design, however crazy the fantasy terrain may be.
Hey just wanted to say this video has been very helpful as someone just starting to dabble with world building. I was wondering if you could make/ have made a video about how to make a map that isn’t cluttered while still giving detail. I use pencil and paper atm but if I continue with this as a hobby I may get a device to use with my laptop. Thanks for the video regardless! Edit: may I guess that ‘the scar’ is the result of a super volcano creating a massive caldera that split the tectonic plates and thus the continents in half? Just my guess as an environmental major lol
An environmental major!? You're maps are gonna look bonkers when you're done 😳 I haven't made that one yet, but I'll give that a shot! Thanks for taking the time to leave some love on this video :) As for your guess, definitely close ;) haha
@@TheFantasyForge haha it’s a gift and a curse so far. Gives me a big head start in understanding how different natural features come about but at the same time it makes me want to use all of my knowledge as much as I can, also makes me more aware of how much I won’t be taking into consideration due to being uninformed. Thanks a lot though! My biggest struggle has definitely been trying to make a map that is understandable and tidy, while still feeling and being detailed and in depth. I’ll put notifications on from now on lmao 😂
@@IAmTheRealHim I would say start with the original fantasy maps. Look at the hand drawn stuff of Tolkien and C.S Lewis. They were experts at the minimalism with those things
@@TheFantasyForge and for when I want to start going in depths on the back stories of certain places like who founded a city, who controls it now, how many times has it switched hands etc. should I have some sort of booklet/journal that I can write in and attach numbers too that correlate to numbers on the map or something like that?
@@IAmTheRealHim I had the same thoughts, and I ended up doing sooo much world building, and guess what? None of it came up in the games lol. My suggestion, think of how old that civilization is in relation to your party. Next, think about a city from our own world that is just as old. How much do you know about that city? When you have that answer, that's how much info you really need for your games. I created so much lore, names of kings, names of places, famous battles, events...etc...and the truth is I'm probably the only one that will know it without writing a version of my own Silmarillion. Sometimes simpler is better when it comes to your games, and just hinting at a past is all that's needed to add some lore and age
Hey there! Amazing video! What settings would you recommend for the canvas when starting out? As in, what size, resolution, etc. I am planning to use good old PS with a drawing tablet. ^^
Oh man, my own map was like 8k by 8k. I would do whatever the highest is that your tablet can run. But make sure to set the PSI to at least 300
@@TheFantasyForgeThank you so much, Sir. Can't wait for a new map video, if it's in the plans for the near future!
@@reeto8784 Thank you for the love!
I was gonna comment on the X-split and the fact that you didn't put a tectonic rift on the magic rift, but people already said all that. What I didn't see anyone commenting yet, though, is that natural rifting events actually do create mountains and elevation as well, because the upwelling magma and thinning crust makes it lift up a bit at the split, so you can imagine high lands with a rift in the middle. The interesting thing is that if your magic event is recent, it could be a cool anomalous case where there is rifting without highlands, which would easily tell any geologist in-world or outside that it's not a natural rift. One piece of criticism that I can give that immediately jumped to me is that your continent looks like a small island, and I think it's due to the coastlines and lack of "tectonic drag" (not a real geology term, but if you look at earth, you can see that tectonic movement distorts and drags the land a bit). This can create skinny peninsulas and island arcs, so some island chains along tectonic boundaries would also help (like in that upper-east boundary that goes into the ocean). I also think your coastlines are too regularly irregular, meaning that it's just a constant jagged pattern all around, and that makes it look small. You'd expect older regions to be flatter and smoother, with newer regions being more jagged, mostly due to erosion and sediment deposition. This would smooth out some parts of the coastline forming huge bays, while others can remain more jagged. Artifexian has quite a few tutorials on the geology of worldbuilding that I would recommend people check. Another thing I'm gonna say is that you don't need active plate boundaries for mountains, as some mountains could be relics of a deeper past. They would be more eroded and way older, but still mountains. I think people already mentioned this, though, along with other tips on the general dynamics of tectonic plates (like how you should think about their movement, to avoid creating impossible situations that would imply the plates are expanding, and instead more or less alternate collisions with rifting).
Dude this is SUPER helpful. I'm gonna add this to my notes because all of that is solid advice. Not sure what you mean by drag tho, can you point out some areas on Earth? Or I can google it haha. But this was cool to learn about
@@TheFantasyForge Well, the "tectonic drag" isn't a real term that can be googled, it's more of a visual observation of mine. Sea-wise, the best example I think I have for the drag is India. If you look at the Indian Ocean on Google Earth, you can almost see how the Indian Plate pretty much SCRAPED its way through as it rushed North to collide with Asia and form the Himalayas. Land-wise, you can look at the how South America and Antarctica are kinda trying to "touch tips" 😳. You can see down there how the plates can create this effect of land tapering off into a trail (remember, Antarctica, South America, Africa and India were all glued together, so they're all moving away from one another). These shapes aren't 100% the result of deformation, but deformation does happen, even if it doesn't show very well in reconstruction videos (like this one watch?v=f6bWbDl2ItM). It shows better here watch?v=g_iEWvtKcuQ (and I recommend checking that whole channel), but it's still not very clear because these animations aren't ENTIRELY smooth and instead you see the forms just rotating and then changing shape through fade-ins and stuff, but the change of those shapes is what I mean. But if you look around Google Earth, you can see the "scars" of plate tectonics. Can also be helpful to look at a map with plate movement labeled. Another way that plate tectonics gives shape to landmasses are volcanic island arcs and the creation of peninsulas near plate boundaries. The best example of this has to be on the Asian side of the Pacific, from the Kamchatka Peninsula, to Japan, down Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia as a whole. You can really see how the encounter of plates creates these oddly shaped peninsulas and stuff. But even beyond that you can see a lot of weird shapes and unique forms that are a result of tectonic history, in pretty much all continents.
@@zee_space_wolfy Thank you again for this. The "touch tips" made my day LOL
As an excersise in worldbuilding the way yo make your plates is ok but in reality they dont work like this ( 7:40 ) Plates are individual pieces of a giant puzzle that is the mantle. That intersection you made there where 4 plates meet in a single point is rare. Most commonly you get an interection between just 3 plates But the point is that one plate can´t "Continue" over another. It would be another plate entierly that by chance managed to align with the other one. So you should treat them like that. Also plates have a direction of movement and a primary composition: Continental (which are lighter) and Oceanic (which are heavier) For intance the most commonly known mountain ranges are made when a continental and oceanic plate crash This makes mountain ranges with volcanic activity near the sea. This is your Pacific Ring of Fire from Chile to Canada or what you get in Japan. Another way to get mountains is if 2 Continental plates crash. This gets you Mountain Ranges WITHOUT VOLCANOS. Like the Himalayas. If 2 Oceanic plates collide then you get volcanic activity on sea level that leads to a chain of islands like Mariana Islands Now when 2 plates separate it moves the ocean floor and the continents away from the point of separation. If this happens in the ocean you get the ocean getting bigger. If this happens in a continent you get the continent fracturing itself creating giant ravines until the ocean can break in and fill that hole. Then it just keeps expanding as a normal ocean Sort of like what you have with the fracture there though I assume in this case that fracture was made through some magical means
Super helpful! Thank you
@@TheFantasyForge gotta put years of geology mayor to use somehow. Great video btw
@@ChBrahm That stuff fascinates me, I went into this with like...zero knowledge lol. The KZhead community has helped enlighten me where I went wrong LMAO
Rivers ALWAYS take the shortest distance to Ocean Level
I would agree if we weren't talking about a world filled with magic haha
The fantasyforge did say it correctly, rivers flow downwards. The water doesn’t know where the ocean is. A great example of this is the river Severn which’s source is only 21 kilometres from the Sea but because of the topography the water at its source flows for 354km from the Cumbrian mountains to Bristol. If rivers really just took the shortest distance to ocean level they’d all be straight lines.
@@TheFantasyForgeit looks nicer on the map if the rivers flow towards the sea rather than having it seem like the rivers are avoiding the sea as long as possible
@@Diesalot-sc9qz that's a really nice way to put what everyone else has been saying haha. Thanks! I was looking at maps recently and now I see what everyone means. This is a great way to put it, thank you!
@@TheFantasyForge glad to help
great video but you made a mistake with the tectonic plates by having four lines cross it's only ever three lines due to how big even smaller plates are
Yeah I've had some people comment that, I had no idea haha. The more you know! I definitely went back and edited this map a LOT
@@TheFantasyForge Heres a video on the subject kzhead.info/sun/q8ONnppuh6iKoWw/bejne.html
What software do you use for map making, BTW great video❤️
Thanks for the love! I use Inkarnate for most of my stuff. It's 12$ a month I think but it makes it so much easier. If you mean for this, I did the main shape in Inkarnate, and then hand traced it in photoshop to get a bigger file size where I can add more details
@@TheFantasyForge awesome! Thank you!
Great video! It kind of looks like westeros lol.
Thanks! I definitely looked at both Westeros and Middle earth when making this :P
How do the people living here know that "The Scar" is a scar, or even a terrain feature at all? Have their map their own maps and can clearly see that feature?
well there are colonies along the northern shores on the other side of the sea. So in a way it's like how we call the straight of Gibraltar, "The Pillars of Hercules" because of a story that was told back in the day. Some people might believe this involved the gods or some event, but most people believe it's just a name.
I'm making a fantasy world with 3 forms of humans as races: Ape (Evolution), Human (Life) and Skeleton (Dead). Although i haven't decided if the landscape would be a mass landscape with a sea or an island just like this video. This world would mainly focus on communities rather than individuals.
That's a cool idea! Islands would make sense for why there's different kinds of humans!
I got an idea while watching you video and so I am going to start looking around myself. So maybe I will answer my own questions. I want to use a map of a specific part of earth and from a specific time in earth's history, specifically Europe. Where can I find such a map that is historically accurate and is free of any kind of copy right? Or am I just overing thinking that last part? Thank you for any help.
Like, you want to find an old map of the world? I would just google "17th century London map" or "12th century Istanbul" or whatever it is you're looking for. Maybe go to images after you type it in, or just scroll google until you find a good article.
The map that I'm creating it's got a massive desert in the south portion of the continent with oasis's all across it and a big huge salt plain where crazy ass dwarves and inventors will really fast arcane cars And the other vehicles. Plus some style of Speed Racer esque canyon racing on the other side of the desert.
Now THAT'S pod racing!
Often big cities and big roads attract a lot of other settlements around them. The most "wild" areas would likely not be around roads, but far away from civilization, often in areas hard to settle or those that have historically not been settled (though "settled" is always a bit of a vague term; settled by who? Most places will have somebody living there, but they may be foragers and hunters or nomads). "Forest" is kind of the default state of wet-ish, not super cold areas. the main reason why a place that could be forest isn't is due to human or large animal activity (such as elephants which do throw over trees and play a role in habitat shaping) that remove trees or prevent new trees from growing by eating the new ones after, say, a natural fire. As such it can be a good idea to draw forests in negative. Figure out where forests aren't due to (height, lack of water, human activity, cold) and the rest is likely forest of some kind.
That's some solid advice! Appreciate that
I've already created the maps in my head, down to the square mileage, and wrote them down on paper, but does anyone know a good link where I can actually build it online?
Inkarnate is my go to, but honestly it doesn't need to be fancy. Anything is great when you consider it came from your friggin mind
@@TheFantasyForge Thanks! im using Inkarnate as we speak. There still is a lot of getting used to though.
What is the program that you are using to make the map?
This is using Inkarnate! I did a combination of Inkarnate and hand drawing in Krita :) Hand drawing is always more rewarding when it's done
this video makes me happy
appreciate the love! Thanks for the comment, made my day :)
I’ve been completely avoiding a complete map because I hate geography and everything you said here just went over my head
LOL then just make one for fun! Forget everything I said or anyone said
Thanks a lot this video helped me immensely is there any apps or websites to start making my map
Try Inkarnate! Huge help. And thank you!
hey man thanks
thanks for the love!
Really nice video but what drawing software did yꙮu use?
Inkarnate and Photoshop!
ive subscribed
this was just such a good video, helped me alot. thanks
@@A-necron Appreciate the love! Just glad it helps :)
@@TheFantasyForge no really i have struggled with maps and now it looks real, thankyou
@@A-necron part 2 coming soon! haha
@@TheFantasyForge oooh, i would say what will it be focused on but i dont want it to be spoiled haha
just ask why is the prisoner from death cells in the miniature
What software did you use to paint the map and id love to know more about your worlds history
It was a combo of Inkarnate and Photoshop! I'm going to be making lots more videos on my world coming up in 2024 :D Thanks for the love!
quick tip, tectonic plates never have 4 corners intersect, 3 are the maximum as a rule. if you want the land movement to be ultra realistic ofcourse its not neccisary for a fantasy enviourment but thats what would be most realistic
Yeah a few people have mentioned this, clearly I am not a geologist LOL. Thanks for the tips and I appreciate the love!
@@TheFantasyForge no issue, I didn't really take the time to check the comments so that's on me 😅
@@TheFantasyForge no issue, I didn't really take the time to check the comments so that's on me 😅
@@elementalgolem5498 Nah I'm glad to have people like you make me a better storyteller 🥰
"wall that seperates the north" never heard that before.
You're right! It's heavily inspired by Hadrian's wall. I love the lore of it keeping out the "wild lands" of Scotland and it brings a visceral fantasy element to mind when I think of that and the old English legends. Definitely pulled on that for this, although, you're missing a huge chunk of the story. If it doesn't interest you, there's a million and one other channels you can visit. But thanks for the comment!
@@TheFantasyForge i was being sarcastic, game of thrones/ the song of ice and fire did it first lol.
@@averagecringefan2964 you gotta put the /s for sarcasm LOL ! Yeah G.R.R Martin got the inspiration from Hadrian's wall as well. It comes from Arturian legends. North was "wild" and that's where "Merlin the wizard" lived. You don't go there. I've always loved that stuff for stories.
@@TheFantasyForge yea my bad love your stuff!
for country border i would say a things, making weird border (if explain) can make the country more specials and more REALE bcs country in ours world don't have all the time border who make sens and if explain it could make this country more interesting like imagine a country who have an exclave relativley far it can be becaus its annex an merchand republic who had made mulltiple outpost and when it become weaker got annex and only this big city-outpost remain that a things demonstrating with a bit of lore we can make weird border coherent and so the country become more specialsand real
Definitely! We have weird borders sometimes because of wars or fences...etc. Love this!
I’m only 5 mins in so you might sa this later but what tool did you use to make this map?
Inkarnate!
I'm planning to make a table soon. and i have never made a continant like this. What software did you use to make this?
I used Inkarnate for the base and then tweaked some things here and there in photoshop. I'll be making a part 2 to this with an updated map tho
That's good to hear. Sadly I'm not to good artistically or technologically. I'm just trying my best to try and give my future players a fun time. But this video does help me a lot on thinking for things. Sadly for me I'm indecisive on a plot or a world, since I don't have players. And I've never made a world myself.
Give inkarnate a try! There's a free version and it does all the art stuff for you. I have another video on that here: kzhead.info/sun/qZitpZ2EhqSBjK8/bejne.html @@dee7571
What software are you using?
So in the video it's just good ol' photoshop, but the base map was made with a combination of Inkarnate and Krita. Inkarnate for the base, and in Krita I doodled on it and fixed things here or there.
@@TheFantasyForge thanks
Does anyone know what program he uses for the map? And if so where to download it?
Inkarnate! There's a free version here: inkarnate.com/
@@TheFantasyForge Thanks so much!
It’s weird, I’ve never found a realistic fantasy map. It’s really hard to make a balance between detailed areas (like Europe and Indonesia) and boring areas (California and Angolan coastlines).
What app or program are you using yo make this?
Did most of it in Inkarnate and then I took it into Photoshop to add other things here and there
What is the program you used to draw the map?
It's a combo of Inkarnate and Photoshop!
what map editing software is that
I used Inkarnate for the base and photoshop to make little additions
Hey somebody can tell me what website he is using for create maps?
Inkarnate!
Cool video but 10:05 rivers almost never split naturally!
ALMOST never 😜 good thing it's a world filled with magic and weird things happen all the time lol
How much time have you spent actually traveling on rivers? I'm guessing you got that from a book.
I love how u used the map of Xadia from the dragon brince flipped it sideways and mirrored it then went over it with ur own tools making small agustments lol
Literally have no idea what that is
I aim to have a huge world. Only 2 or 3 continents are known and they’re going to be dense. It’s going to be relatively early in the world’s history, so you’d see a huge variety of human technology. I’m going to have a huge continent to the west that’s going to be inspired by a combo of the feywild and fairytale world. You can be there for what seemingly is 10 minutes, and you’ve spend 50 years in real life and your body may or may not age. Vice versa as well… you could’ve spend 150 years and it may only be an hour on the rest of the world. There’s also going to be a shadowfel kinda continent and a continent where orcs migrated to long ago, where bountiful of dragons and other beasts inhabits. It’s an early world. There’s going to be a lot of different languages. There’s going to be different Valuta. You’d seen people in copper age and perhaps Renaissance age. The plot I’ve in mind is, the Demons and Devils (as we know them) has relatively discovered this world. A new world to gain souls. A demon lord’s lieutenant has come up a curse that’s going to turn CHAR into a powerful demon from the get go, but the curse is still in its infancy. They have about 2 years to solve it, they will have a demonic mark somewhere on their body. They will be granted boons by their curse. However utilizing these powers will also speed up the time towards their transformation. There will be ways to postpone their timeframe and shortened it. There will be multiple ways of solving it… or they can simply ignore it, and be pirates for the remaining time, it’s going to be rather sandboxy with a narrative… it can become rather lenient/railroady if they choose a path like that.
sounds like a lot of fun! I love me some good devil/demon stuff too
@@TheFantasyForge Yea, for sure! I’ve a lot fleshed out in my mind, but life won’t really allow myself to sit down and get it on paper.. I think I want to create the world first. And it’s going to be in a realistic way, and then break the rules ofc. because magic. But I think it’s fun to explorer what kind of impact magic would have in a society.. because if you’ve people that can cure disease and make complex irrigation, better yields.. and so on… that will have a revolutionary impact.. so my world is going to be “low magic” of sorts… the main broth of spell users are going to be called “magicians”, and they won’t be able to cast crazy magical stuff, but more so something akin to like the level of the prestidigitation, creating water, move objects and such… just a dozen of them, can have a major impact in a town. And then there’s going to be kinda “well of magic” that stems back from its primordial beginning, that powerful magic users search for and many ambitious magic users are relentlessly after.
What program is this?
Inkarnate!
I am making an extremely large flat world, that is 35,000 miles wide, 100,000 miles long and 8000 miles thick. I am putting faerun like areas and ebberon like areas and all kinds of stuff like that. Any advice?
Is this for a campaign? Video game? My immediate challenge would be, what's at the edges?
I have toyed with either an enormous cliff holding back the ocean; like a reverse of the Gandalra Cycle books. Or 3-5 miles of ice at the edges.
Oh, and it's for a campaign world . So far I have only been working on one side of it.
The "ice cream" part of this ice cream Sandwich is an under dark, a hallow center containing the hells and the abyss, then another layer of underdark. If that makes sense.
@@NomNom1970 I would start with who are the major powers, what are their capitals, major landmarks between all of those, and then really think about what makes each country or kingdom or whatever you have set up, unique. What makes them feel like their own culture? After you have a "theme" or "mood" or concept for those, I would pick where the campaign is going to start and start fleshing out from the inside out. If the campaign starts in a city, flesh out the city. Then start hitting the outside areas like forests and farmlands. Also thinking about how different places think of the world at large? Are there stories about the edge of the world? Have a direction for the party so you know where to build next. And just start thinking about the history and using that history to flesh out the rest of the world. How did that war in X place affect it's landscape and it's people?
Another thing people tend to forget is how a country reacts in dire situations. Say you have a nation who relies heavily on a mining industry because they are surrounded by mountains. For example that bottom left nation on the northern continent north westerly of the scar. Did riots and violent outburst occur throughout the country? Did poverty become an issue making the country weak and dead? Did the country become Ultra-Nationalist and expand? Another example would be that, since the southern continent lacks information about inhabitants, geographical mapping or resources. Think about the profits a country could make from invading another place. A real life example could be Britain expanding its colonial reaches. Anyways, sorry for responding a year later hahaha. Have a good one guys
The absolute FIRST thing you need to understand is how plate tectonics work in your world. Are they moving towards, or away from each other. This tells you how/why there are mountains. Mountain ranges are caused by plates smashing together, like the Alps, Himalayas, Rockies etc. Once you know where the mountains are, what land is high and low, then you can make rivers. Rivers flow from high to low. Lakes are created when the water can't reach the ocean because of flattening land or obstacles. What latitude are things? This affects what grows there (pines vs deciduous trees etc), lush vs desert... Once you have rivers you can make cities. Almost every city in the real world needs fresh water and trade. So, cities are almost always on rivers, either deltas, or on rivers inland. That's the boring bit. Once you know this, the world will be believable, now for the story. What is the purpose of a city/town? A place where farmers bring their goods for distribution, buy feed, eat and drink, socialise, trade livestock, buy tools or weapons from a blacksmith etc. Maybe is an administrative centre for collecting taxes, dispensing justice etc. Maybe there is an important source of raw materials or a mine nearby. It must have a purpose. In a fantasy story it may be a place of worship, pilgrimage, learning and sorcery. Ruins and other places may be military forts, castles, manor houses etc. Bottomline is there must be a reason for things. Just dumping random shit on a map never works.
Great tips! Thanks for the help!
what is that program called?
Inkarnate!
@@TheFantasyForge thanks ☺️ I was surprised you still replied this fast a year after the release
@@Voidrift4991 I will reply to every comment possible until it's physically impossible lol. I will die on this hill
@@TheFantasyForge i'm seeing that a lot of it is locked behind a paywall (surprisingly small yearly but a paywall nontheless), do you recommend any totally free ways to make a map?
@@Voidrift4991 the only other way I know how is to do it by hand, photograph it/scan it, and then trace it in photoshop or something like that.
What i do is take a apaper with my other. Hand close my eyes try to make an circle big one boom map ready duplicate and mix it change angle 🥴
i finished my map.. well i use some generator and tweaked some stuff a little..
which generator was it?
@@TheFantasyForge i used azgaar map generator, its easier to use and the map can be both used for modern or dark era. which what im trying to build is a world in modern society and technology.
Hey, I am writting a book currently which going to base on a real version of Europe, but being warped by a global cataclysm. So it's not going to be 1:1 with the real Europe, but rather deformed. I am looking for some good applications which could help me draw my map. Any advice please anyone?
Inkarnate is what I use but it's not really made for that scale of maps. If you're any good with digital painting, you can always just paste the image into photoshop or Krita or something, and trace it in there. I've also heard of Mapdraft I think it's called, and Wonderdraft, give those a look, but I've never used them myself
I have a river that flows up a mountain because the river god likes to troll humans.
LOL "How is this POSSIBLE?! Someone call an artificer"
Rivers don't branch, they join
So I've heard, haha. I will continue to fall on topography/magic as my excuse LOL
@@TheFantasyForge magic or not, it’s more immersive to have rivers converge rather than split. If you split rivers, then you end up creating an island (which can happens in deltas and lowlands). Magic is a lazy excuse to say why a river splits. Also rivers tend to be more interesting when they flow in a realistic direction (rather than a river bypassing a nearby inlet, have the inlet become a delta. That way the trade occurring along that river extends to that inlet)
@@Diesalot-sc9qz but I love the idea of a little island in a river even if it means that it's only there because someone put it there, or someone widened a river, or made some canals.
Somewhat genuine question here: Why do I want my world to be realistic? I've been looking for map making videos to watch in the background of my own worldbuilding, maybe I'll learn a thing or two, and I'm only a few minutes into this, but I do not understand this perspective really. I get that it's fun for some people, to research these things and have it be super realistic, but other than that - why? I am personally a huge fan of Walter Moers, my recent favourite book was Piranesi, I am endlessly inspired by stories like Coraline and Alice in Wonderland. Those practically have nonsense worlds, yet they are insanely immersive. I want my game to have a similar feeling, fantastical and fairy tale like and immersive through it, yet all the videos I see looking for worldbuilding are all about realism and basing everything on the real world. And it is insanely boring and overwhelming to me. No critique, really, it's just not my style, but it's... everywhere. This is the 20th video I've seen speaking like that, the plate tectonics just really got me to make this comment. Is it easier to some people? Or is it really just for fun? But then why do I see so little alternative advice? Is it just judged to be the most immersive thing you can do? (I also understand the title is literally realistic fantasy map lmao once again this isn't a criticism of your style at all)
Totally understandable. Some people prefer soft world building. I like soft world building but only after I know every piece of my world and for me, it just feels fake to have a world with no rules. So I guess to answer your question, yeah it's fun for me haha