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Verdant Haven wrote:

I've been making maps for decades, and something that eventually "clicked" for me somewhere along the way is that it doesn't work to first make the map, then give it a history and people. Maps reflect the history and people of the place they show. If you're looking for more than a geographic outline, the worldbuilding needs to come first.

I should have rather said that I'm not so much making maps (although that's what you'd call the physical sheets of paper that they're on), but rather that my process is to try to mimic how our civilization on earth itself unfolded.

To me, the idea is to start with the physical world itself, where are the continents, islands, ocean currents, patterns of precipitation, distribution of minerals, soil types, elevation, etc. etc., which itself then is the stage that the human (or fantasy, but I'm boring in that I would usually stick to earth-copies) world can unfold on. So to me, the process is less like, "okay, I want a big, monolithic China-like empire here, with natural borders in these directions," and more like, "okay, given this physical world with these different continents, archipelagoes, etc., what kinds of human settlement, trade routes, types of states, etc. are likely to be where?" Obviously then I would tweak things (e.g. actually, let's get rid of that island, or let's extend this mountain range so that the desert takes up more of this landmass), but to me, the natural part always had to come first, if only in rough contours.

I wonder if such a thing exists as you might call "Earth simulator" or "planet simulator," in the sense that you could start with a blank earth-sized planet with oceans, and then build landmasses and add elevations, and then the simulator would model (in somewhat rough terms, admittedly), what the climate and weather patterns would be like based on air currents and latitude and everything. So you could then mess with things (what if this mountain range were twice as high?) or (what if the continental shelf extended way out, so the ocean currents were farther offshore?) and stuff like that.

Don't get me wrong, I entirely see your perspective for narrative or traditional world building purposes, wherein you have the concepts of the human civilizations and then build a world to accommodate the elements of the story or world that you want, but to me, a major element of the project would be to start out with an untouched, natural world that was designed as an end in itself, and then the story would come in by looking at the canvas of the world and saying, "okay, where would organized states first develop?" "where would the cities eventually go?" "where are the extractable resources for an industrial state?" "which areas are likely to be fertile agricultural regions?" etc. etc.

By the way, your series of maps and your dedication to fleshing out the Bailiwicks is amazing. I wish I had the focus and determination to sit down and to even make a general map for Ruinenlust. I have ideas, but for lack of an ability to make a nice map on the computer, it never gets past the rough physical paper stage. :-/

Northern Wood wrote:

:D

Damn, that's awesome. I guess that's the sort of path one would follow to get into doing it. I found your explanation to be very good, haha, even if it's beyond my time and wherewithal to follow. There's always too much to do, and I feel like when I settle into something for too long that I'm "wasting time" that "should really be spent doing ___." But that's amazing. I think you're right that practicing is what makes things better and more efficient. When I think of how I would struggle to put lessons together during my first year teaching, compared to how now I can sit down for two hours and crank out assignments and handouts and activities for a class for three weeks, it really puts into perspective how doing it is itself the goal, because that only leads you to the enabling of further and better things. Thanks for the tutorial! ;-)