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the world; Heimi An'danna

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/heimiandanna/images/8/87/Heimi_an%27danna_official.png

the real reason for me to make this topic is to ask you guys - who obviously know much more about conworlding than me - whether my world is realistic enough? are the rivers situated on the right position? or the mountains be in a place in shouldn't be? in the meantime, i will send a description of my conworld later. perhaps a labeled map also will be uploaded (i do have a labeled map, but unfortunately it is in malay)

feel free to comment!

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urininia uriwid erë, ashman uthilinia uthiwid erë

the day conquered the sun, while the night revolved the moon.

Is this a full map? Pole to pole? Or the more common North pole to equator arrangement? Or is it more local than that? Climate's a bitch on the best of days, but obviously if this is a small archipelago it's a different beast than a series of continents.

On the eastern island, in the center, how is that river arranged? It appears there's a lake draining into two separate rivers, which pretty much doesn't happen. Rivers naturally come together; they never part except at their deltas. There are some creeks along the North American continental divide which brag about splitting and their claims are a sort of iffy.

To the large island just south of that, it appears you have rivers draining into lakes in the center of the island. Perfectly normal, but a little odd since you have the lakes in the middle of mountains, and presumably the coasts are lower elevation. This could be an issue of the map drawing and not the actual geology.

Center Island seems to have the same splitting rivers problem. Unless there's an explanation it seems impossible (although, a cursory internet search shows that there's a river connecting the Orinoco to the Amazon, which makes no sense to me, but the real world does so often amaze with its apparent inconsistency.)

Otherwise the map is really lovely, the coastline isn't overly fractal, as some tend to be these days, and the trailing islands look sensible. I can see some clear expanses of water that are just begging to be labeled. The big question is the scale of the islands really. I'd love to see more about this world.

This is a full map - unfortunately. Pole to pole. Climate's a problem to me.

On the eastern island, actually one of the river originated from the lake (does that make sense?). If you see it that way, the river actually combined with the river from the mountains - straight to the sea.

It is the same for the southern island too. The three rivers were originating from the lake. The northern river evaporated because it passed through the desert just north of the mountains. The two other rivers, however, froze. (once again, does that make sense? the desert were not just directly in front of the mountains, it is actually a bit far.)

Yeah, the splitting rivers on the central island always bothered me. Maybe I should just left it that way, just for randomness, the same as our own unpredictable Earth? Perhaps not, if it is too weird.

I'm at process of labeling the map at the moment. I will post the map later.

Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate it.

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urininia uriwid erë, ashman uthilinia uthiwid erë

the day conquered the sun, while the night revolved the moon.

New - labelled map!

http://images.wikia.com/heimiandanna/images/8/83/Geography_english.png

Note that I still haven't name the rivers yet. Important point - most of the 'E's in the names actually rhymed with 'then' not 'liter'. lén-tré-nar, hé-vé-rén and so on..

I don't want to create any demonym for the places' names, as seen by my neutral choice of naming - Desert of Qalfal, etc. But because it bothered me so much, it looked quite weird to me to name it that way. Is it?

Also, the rivers shown on the map were actually only the main rivers. There are also numerous other rivers connected to them that I don't even bother to draw.

I will discuss about the culture and the 'actual' story behind my conworld, if there is anyone interested enough .

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urininia uriwid erë, ashman uthilinia uthiwid erë

the day conquered the sun, while the night revolved the moon.

I am not bothered by the names in fact they seem quite alright.

However, I have the feeling your climate zones might be a little off. Assuming your world is somewhat similar to our own, there would be a rainforest in the area you currently have named the Desert of Qalfal – it is just a little south of the equator line and there are no mountains in the east which could block rainclouds from the Riundel Ocean.

Before applying names to the map it might be a good idea to block out rough climate zones to determine what kind of weather is prevalent in a certain area. At least that’s what I usually do :) A useful wiki entry on the matter is the Köppen Climate Classification – it gives very general examples where to find particular climate areas on a continent.

Thank you for replying, Alice

For the desert, must there be mountains on the east to block rainclouds? Because when I look at the world's (our world) map the Sahara seems to be situated on the equator too. What was the reason for the Sahara to be dry then? (I'm curious) Were there any mountains? The Qalfal Desert was inspired by the Sahara, to told the truth.

Meanwhile, for the desert on the southeast, desert of Saja, it is inspired by the Australian deserts. Does that make sense? There seems to be no mountains there too to block the rainclouds, as you told. Like I say, climate's a problem to me

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urininia uriwid erë, ashman uthilinia uthiwid erë

the day conquered the sun, while the night revolved the moon.

Actually the Sahara is quite a bit away from the equator. The Amazonas is at the equator, as is the Kongo. I found one of my old reference pics:



The red line is the equator and the large yellow-brown area at the northern end of Africa is the Sahara. You can see the land around the equator is mostly green, while there are two bands of deserts above and beneath it (yellow), one in the northern and one on the southern hemisphere. You can also see the bands are not equally distributed across the map, that’s because mountains and water currents influence the weather too.

In general you don’t need mountains to have a desert, at least not in the right climate zone. You can create deserts in other regions if you have a sufficiently high mountain to create a rain shadow on the other side. The mountains then block the clouds which lose the rain on one side while none reaches the other. An example for such a desert is the Atacama in South America, where the Andes block the winds.

Edit: Also it is only true in the southern hemisphere that mountains in the east eventually block the rain - in the northern hemisphere is is generally the other way round. The Rocky Mountains for example influence the weather of the Great Plains.

So, for the Saja deserts, it did located on the southern hemisphere. There also happens to be mountains eastwards of the desert. So.. it is acceptable for desert to form there?

Also - this is the equatorial line for the world;

http://images.wikia.com/heimiandanna/images/8/8d/Equator.png

The place where I place the Qalfal Deserts is actually a bit (a little little bit) far from the equator. Another exception perhaps?

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urininia uriwid erë, ashman uthilinia uthiwid erë

the day conquered the sun, while the night revolved the moon.

I put An’danna side by side with our world map for comparison: Map

I feel that even with mountains it might be a bit too far south for a desert. At this point the lower third of Saja is either ice or tundra zone. The area above has a climate which would roughly compare to an upside down version of northern Europa.

The quickest way to assure there is a desert in Qalfal and one in Saja would be to rotate your map a bit. Of course that would change the climate of your other islands too and I am not sure if the shift reflects what you had planned for them. Rotation example: Map


All that said… I am not sure how many people look at a map and wonder if the climate zones follow some general plan. In my experience fantasy authors and game designers seem to place them rather randomly and no one ever complains.

Oh my, thanks for spending time editing the map for me. The rotated map seems to be quite a big change.

When I take a look on the comparison image between Heimi An'danna and our world, you made it look as though my world was in the same size as ours. When I imagined Heimi An'danna, I imagined it as quite smaller actually. If the size was a bit smaller, then the equator must be a bit different then ours. What do you think?

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urininia uriwid erë, ashman uthilinia uthiwid erë

the day conquered the sun, while the night revolved the moon.

Nice image there, Alice.

I must correct you, however: northern vs southern hemisphere doesn't mean anything in terms of west vs east - the two hemispheres are entirely symmetrical. Why don't the Rockies have the same effect as the Andes? They do. That's why the southwest of the USA is very dry. But as you go further north, the effect reverses, so you have the wet northwest. The plains are dry partly because of the mountains, and also just because they're a long way from the sea.

Likewise, in the southern hemisphere, if you go further south you get wet forests on the western side of the andes and dry patagonia on the east.

I will admit I simplified it a bit too much :)

When I first wrote the post I talked specifically about Qalfal and then found I was too general about the mountains in the east thing and edited it - but made the Rocky example too general as well. I mostly tried to point out the mountains don’t have to generally be in the east.

All the things you say are correct. I just found them a little too advanced when merely talking about general climate distribution. In the case of An’danna I wonder if the large water bodies and the in general narrow strips of land won't murk up climate a little anyway. What do you think?



I have to admit I have no idea of planet size factors into climate zones - that’s why I said my assumptions were based on an earth like planet. I know a higher axial tilt will broaden the rain forest/monsoon areas while narrowing the more moderate zones, and a smaller axial tilt will work the other way round, but neither would help much in the case of An’danna.

If you want to learn more about Geography, you should rent some books (I suggest "Introducing Physical Geography by Alan & Arthur Strahler" if possible) or check out this cartography forum and look into their tutorial section or ask questions. They have tuts on proper river placement and a whole bunch more, like info on Biomes and more.

Other than that, the thing I noticed was the lake by Ataw and I think is the same lake mentioned by a previous member here. It is within the mountains.

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To deceive a diplomat speak the truth, he has no experience with it. ~ Greek Proverb

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